BY CAMMY CLARKKEY WEST — Douglas Bedgood recently stood on a defunct Henry Flagler railroad bridge, watching as the tide forcefully moved water from the Gulf of Mexico through a channel to the Atlantic Ocean. What he saw was untapped energy. Enough tidal power, he believes, to light and cool every residence and business in the Lower Keys.To capture that power and convert it to electricity, Bedgood founded Florida Keys Hydro Power Research Corp. in July. The nonprofit is working to put underwater tidal turbine farms in the Keys’ channels.”People have been talking about this for a long time: Why not use the tides?” said Bedgood, 65. “But everybody was waiting for government or somebody else to do it. So it never got done.”Bedgood, a massage therapist who has developed aquatic therapy devices and tried to build a wind farm in California in the 1970s, said his motive is green — but not for the color of money: “I want to do my part to save the planet.”Two months ago, 25 engineers, politicians, government regulators and environmentalists crammed into his home on Love Lane in Key West to hear about the pioneering project.”It may sound like a fairy tale, but it’s too important for our environment not to try,” said former Monroe County Mayor Shirley Freeman, chairman of Keys Hydro Power.The goal: To clump enough turbines — at least 300 — to create 160 megawatts of electricity while doing virtually no damage to the channel site or its marine life, part of Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.At peak usage, the Lower Keys use 140 megawatts.”Now none of our power is green; it comes from a mix of natural gas, nuclear and coal plants,” said Julio Barroso, spokesperson for public utility Keys Energy Service. “We’re looking for green and renewable energy. This seems like a good idea to our board.”The first major step is getting the test turbine, dubbed ”the football” because of its shape, into Bahia Honda Channel near mile marker 36. The turbine has four 4 ½-foot long paddles on each end to capture the tides going in and out. It will be anchored on hard sea bottom where there’s scattered small corals and no sea grass, and where the water is as much as 30 feet deep so it would not interrupt navigation, Bedgood says.”We know it will work to get power,” said project manager Steve French of Stuart-based Applied Concepts Unleashed. “The question is how much can we get and how efficiently can we get it?”With skyrocketing oil prices, the Iraq war and global warming awareness, there’s been a worldwide push to harness the clockwork power of the tides.”There are 81 [tidal] technologies internationally being looked at, with 14 in the United States,” said Sean O’Neill, president of Maryland-based Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition. “The potential is tremendous. But we have to get these projects into the water and get real data.”Alexandra Techet, associate professor of mechanical and ocean engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, agreed, saying the general physics of tidal turbines, though relatively new, “shows good promise.”The first turbine for commercial use, the SeaGen, is expected to be submerged in waters off North Ireland within months.”We’ve got to get some momentum going in this country,” said researcher Roger Bedard of the California-based Electric Power Research Institute. “We’ve had government funding to investigate solar, geothermal, wind, biomass — all the renewable technologies — except ocean energy. Zero funding on ocean energy in the last 20 years.”Earlier this month, though, the Bush administration announced plans to tap into the ocean’s potential as a source for alternative energy.There are currently some private U.S. projects, including one using the Gulf Stream at Florida Atlantic University. Last year, Verdant Power put the first test turbines into U.S. waters, in New York Harbor.Keys Hydro Power has applied for permits with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to install its test unit.Spokespersons for both agencies said they are awaiting feedback from other agencies, but see no major snags. Bedgood is hoping to get the permits by early next year.French said the first test would run 60 days, with data being collected for performance and environmental impact. Major issues include the downtime created by the tides’ natural cycles and potential hurricanes.Many also are concerned that fish, manatees and sea turtles could be harmed.”It’s not a Cuisinart,” Freeman said.The propellers move slowly, about 30 revolutions per minute. But while the props move slowly, much energy can be created through gearing, French said.Kinetic Energy Systems founder Darwin Salls Sr. worked 14 years on the turbine design, which has a 14-by-6-foot hull to house a 100-kilowatt generator.Each turbine is a mini power plant, to be linked by cable under the seabed. A main cable would run to a nearby substation, where electricity would be transmitted to the islands’ main grid.If all goes well with the test, it’s still just a start. Installing an entire farm, which would occupy about a ½-square mile of sea bottom, would require the more stringent approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Keys Hydro Power has filed for permits with the commission for 13 hydrokinetic water power projects throughout the Keys.The evolving project has a Florida team that includes test turbine designer Kinetic Energy Systems of Ocala, turbine installers Ralco Atlantic of Key West, substation builder Power Consulting Associates of Gainesville and generator supplier Fisher Technologies of St. Petersburg.While the tides are free, producing energy from them is not.Each turbine is expected to cost about $100,000. Bedgood said it will cost millions for the cable system and substation. To date, he has provided all the financing for his end of the project, which he expects will cost about $15 million to get the first 10 turbines up and running. He’s searching for private charitable contributors.But ultimately, Bedgood thinks the electricity from tidal power will be 25 percent cheaper to produce than that from fossil fuels.”The Florida Keys is a good place to try our first test,” said Darwin Salls Jr., spokesperson for Kinetic Energy Systems. “It’s a progressive place that is ready to lead the way to be energy free and a green community.”
Governor Claude Kirk and Douglas Bedgood discuss strategy for Keys Hydro Power