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Imagine an army of futuristic windmills marching along a ridge, arms spinning, converting the moving air into electricity. Now picture that same energy army—miniaturized—spinning underwater in the current of the Willamette River.
You’re seeing one of the oldest energy sources on Earth, and what may be the energy future of the world—water power.
Poised to make a boulder-sized splash in this fledgling industry is William “Trey” Taylor ’69, co-founder of Verdant Power. The company turns ocean currents, tides, and rivers into electricity using underwater “windmills” the size of a Mini-Cooper car.
Now, with Taylor at the helm as president, Verdant Power has a $2 million grant for a test project. If successful, the demonstration will launch a $20 million project to provide clean, renewable electricity to New York City. And maybe the world.
Exciting potential exists around the globe for tiny turbines, because unlike building a dam, a community or government can buy a dozen river turbines today and a dozen next year, as the need increases or money becomes available. Taylor calls it “infrastructure in a bag.”
The demand could be huge—nearly 34 percent of the Earth’s population has no electricity. But other nations and international organizations with deep pockets, like the World Bank, want proof before committing. “They say, get these going in the U.S. first to prove the viability,” says Taylor. And so he is.
In a one-mile stretch of New York’s East River, smack in front of the United Nations building, Verdant will plop down six demonstration turbines. Six to eight feet below the river’s surface and 50 to 100 feet apart, the cigar-shaped turbines will gently nose back and forth in the current like wind socks, their 16-foot arms spinning at about the speed of a revolving door, according to Taylor.
Although the technology is expected to be environmentally benign, Verdant is working closely with New York environmental groups to monitor any impacts on aquatic life. Large boats are already prohibited from the channel where the Verdant project is going in and recreational craft should easily pass over the blade tips even at low tides. In fact, the proposal has had only one complaint, Taylor says. That was from a man upset about losing one of his favorite fishing holes, although no one has seen him fish there.
Locating a project in the Big Apple also has the advantage of drawing the attention of media giants. The New York Times has reported on the project, and Esquire magazine named Taylor one of 2004’s “Best and Brightest” for his work with Verdant Power.
If the demonstration project goes well, Verdant will add up to 300 underwater turbines and generate 10 megawatts of power—enough to light up 8,000 homes. But the New York agency charged with overseeing renewable projects estimates that as much as 4,000 megawatts of tidal power may be harvestable in the New York area. That’s enough to electrify 3.2 million homes.
For Taylor, the journey from Portland State to the Big Apple has been a long, strange trip of zigs and zags.
The journey began in the mid-1960s, when Taylor entered PSU bent on studying geology. He zigged shortly after, when, in that heyday of social upheaval, Taylor followed his heart to join activists who wanted to create a better world. He changed his major to political science, became a student senator, and joined the PSU Educational Activities Board, which was responsible for overseeing budgets of student groups. “It was quite fun in those days,” says Taylor. “Taking over the student government... I learned you’re only as good as the army that’s backing you—or controlling the purse strings.”
Taylor briefly considered a career in politics, but instead zagged to teaching, joining a Minnesota outpost of the Teacher Corps, a federal program similar to the Peace Corps, aimed at shaking up education’s status quo. But when he received a low draft number—meaning that if he did nothing he would likely be shipped off to Vietnam—Taylor dropped out of Teacher Corps, returned to Portland, enlisted in the Oregon National Guard, and then the former social activist zagged into a sales job with Procter & Gamble.
After four years with P&G, Taylor got into advertising, joining agencies first in Portland, then in Detroit, as an account supervisor and marketing strategist. After a few years, he became director of communications with the D.C.-based Edison Electric Institute, the trade group for investor-owned electric companies. There he helped create the McLaughlin Group, an issues television program that airs nationally on public television stations.
About seven years ago, Taylor had a sudden insight based on lessons learned along his journey.
In the mid-1990s, the electric industry was partially deregulated. One unintended result was that utilities no longer built power plants—despite the fact that demand for electricity was exploding. At the same time, coal and natural gas were losing favor in the face of global warming. Taylor looked at the lay of the land—and the horizon.
“I thought, ‘Voila,’” says Taylor, “it’s time for another industry to be created here.”
In 1998, Taylor and a handful of like-minded individuals began researching renewable energy. They quickly found that “wind and solar power are the darlings,” says Taylor, but they have one glaring problem. If there’s no sun or no wind, there’s no power. Tidal, wave, and current power are virtually perpetual.
Taylor—geologist, activist, teacher, salesman, and marketing strategist—had found his niche.
Now, just a few years later, things in the small-hydro waters are moving—if not at flood pace, at least swiftly. Although the technology is still in beta stage, house-size underwater turbines are already generating small amounts of electricity off the coasts of Britain and Norway. China, Scotland, and Canada are expressing interest in small hydro power. And in the U.S., companies with different turbine designs are pursuing projects in California, Massachusetts, and Delaware.
Where does that leave the future of water power—and Verdant?
Like many alternative energy enthusiasts, Taylor sees enormous potential. Just consider California, he says. The state’s energy crisis still looms large, and there are over 11,000 miles of man-made waterways just waiting for innovative thinkers. California’s aqueduct system, says Taylor, “is like one huge battery.”
Consider the possibilities if those miles of open canals were filled with hydro powered turbines and covered with a roof of solar collectors. That would be, says Taylor, “a double whammy.”
Closer to home, a mile down river from the Bonneville Dam, Taylor’s geologist side comes into play. There, a massive basalt outcrop gives an extra oomph to the river current as the water is mashed into a smaller space. How about installing a field of turbines there? The Willamette Falls in Oregon City and the mouth of the Columbia River also have prime potential, says Taylor.
For now, the cost of electricity generated by small hydro turbines is higher than coal and gas generation, but as fuel prices increase and economies of scale come into play for hydro turbines, prices will drop significantly, Taylor believes. The project in New York should go a long way toward demonstrating the feasibility of small hydro. And, to paraphrase a song, if Verdant Power can make small hydro work in New York, the company should be able to make it work anywhere.
Melissa Steineger, a Portland freelance writer, wrote the articles "Edit to Fit," "Party Down," and "Chasing the Multnomah Myth" in the spring 2005 PSU Magazine.