March 1st, 2009
San Francisco turns from foggy gray to bright green
The foggiest city in America has no oil and no nearby coal deposits. It has little open space for turbines to capture all that ocean wind. And the frequent fogs would greatly reduce the usefulness of solar. But waves, ah, there’s the action. All the time, nearly every day of the year.
Now my friend Michael Kanellos reports the City and County of San Francisco (as it is officially and politically known) is applying to construct an offshore wave farm to generate electricity. He points out there are many technical, as well as political, obstacles to overcome in the wave farm business.
The proposed wave farm would be eight miles off Ocean Beach in the Pacific. It would require federal permission for placement and construction. The City has apparnetly found that weave power is more dependable and potentially effective than periodic tidal flow. There had been a proposal to harness the tidal flow beneath the Golden Gate but that has been abandoned as unfeasible.
A newsman since 1969, Harry Fuller has worked for CBS, ABC, CNBC Europe, CNET and was founding news director at TechTV. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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