A Maine-based marine renewable energy developer recently submitted a draft application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for future development of a tidal energy project in the Cook Inlet.
The Ocean Renewable Power Company is a developer of “next-generation” water power systems that harness energy from free-flowing river and tidal currents, and is headquartered in Portland, Maine. They also have a field/project office located in Anchorage, as well as wholly-owned international subsidiaries in Canada, Ireland and Chile.
According to the company website, ORPC has previously developed a river hydrokinetic project in partnership with Igiugig, a remote Alaska village located at the outlet of Lake Iliamna where it flows into the Kvichak River, that “features the longest operating marine energy device in all of the Americas.”
ORPC announced in a March 19 press release their draft pilot license application filing for the proposed East Foreland Tidal Energy Project. The East Foreland site “has the highest potential for tidal energy development in the United States,” the release said, noting that ORPC has chosen the site specifically to accelerate the commercial growth of the industry.
The East Foreland site lies just a couple of miles north of Nikiski, on the east side of the Cook Inlet.
According to ORPC’s draft pilot license application, pilot projects are generally expected to be less than five megawatts or “substantially smaller.” The proposed East Foreland project’s total capacity is slated for 1.98 megawatts, with a “small footprint” involving two tidal devices, two dedicated power and data cables, and use of pre-assembled shore station infrastructure.
“What we’re proposing, and what’s in the draft license application, is the use of two different technologies,” ORPC Vice President Nate Johnson said in an interview last Thursday. “One is ORPC’s technology, and the other is a technology by a company called Proteus, and we’re acting kind of collectively as the developer on the project.”
The project would use ORPC’s TidGen Power System and the Proteus AR Series technology.
ORPC’s efforts are supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Water Power Technologies Office through the American Tidal Energy Project. The company began studying the East Foreland area of interest in 2021 under a four-year FERC preliminary permit. According to the ATEP project website, the preliminary permit does not allow ORPC the ability to construct anything at the East Foreland site, but rather “grants ORPC the ability to study the site without competition as well as maintain priority to file a license application with FERC.”
Since 2024, the release states, under a Phase 1 Energy Department grant for ATEP, ORPC has been “assessing the feasibility of developing a tidal energy project to generate reliable, affordable local energy for the Kenai Peninsula.” The draft license application submission also follows “extensive engagement” with state and federal regulators around the design and siting of the project.
“We spent a lot of time with public engagement in the Kenai Peninsula area, both formal and informal,” Johnson said. “As a company, we take those (public) questions and guidance and really use that to help inform the best project we can. We have a lot of partners as well in the area that we work with.”
The application is now in a FERC review process and public comment period that will extend through approximately mid-May.
Additionally, ORPC is “shortlisted for follow-on funding” totaling $29 million from the USDOE Water Power Technologies Office in order to continue their work as the ATEP developer. A decision on funding disbursement is expected “in the next several months.”
“Further study and surveying of the East Foreland site will inform final engineering work and subsequent submittal of a final pilot license application to FERC,” the release states.
“We’ve been working for over a decade in the area, working with Homer Electric, and this Department of Energy award has been a catalyst for us to move … forward, including the draft license application. So the next step is we’re working diligently to be in a position to get additional funding,” Johnson said.
Johnson outlined upcoming phases in the proposed project. Phase 2 would be conducted approximately over 2025 and 2026 and would involve collection of additional information on the East Foreland site.
“What we would do is look to engage with some ocean survey vessels and do surveys that are more specific to where the locations of the tidal energy devices would be proposed,” he said. “The intent would be to … have that inform — as well as stakeholder outreach and economic modeling — the final license application.”
Johnson said that currently ORPC anticipates filing the final pilot license application toward the end of 2026. The application review period is typically approximately six months, during which ORPC would work to procure other project components, aiming for potential installation by 2028-2029.
“There’s still a ways to go to bring all those elements together,” he said.
The March 19 press release states that “ORPC’s development efforts come at a time of diminishing returns from Alaska’s oil and gas reserves and rising energy prices for Alaska consumers. Johnson spoke similarly, adding that he thinks ATEP is “very much aligned” with state and federal positions on developing reliable, diversified and affordable alternative sources of energy.
Southcentral Alaska is currently facing an impending Cook Inlet natural gas supply shortage.
“We think there’s a lot of momentum,” he said. “We think there’s a lot of support. What we’re kind of looking at is, how do we grow responsibly from this demonstration?
“There’s a large opportunity — but this project, just to kind of put it in perspective, is the first step, the catalyst to prove that this can work. It’s important from a technology perspective, a stakeholder perspective, a regulatory perspective, to build the awareness and confidence, and then grow from there.”
Local ATEP partners include the Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District, Homer Electric Association, University of Alaska Fairbanks, the Alaska Energy Authority, HDR and more.
Learn more about ORPC at orpc.co/ and follow the American Tidal Energy Project at americantidalenergy.com/. An introductory project webinar recording from February and upcoming engagement events are also available on the project website.
Find the full draft pilot license application by visiting the FERC eLibrary at elibrary.ferc.gov/eLibrary/search and entering docket number P-15116 in the search field.
