Natural Currents Energy Services, LLC (Natural Currents Energy) has received a preliminary Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) permit to explore the use of tidal energy power. Natural Currents Energy is undertaking a study of the Race, an area of Long Island Sound between Fishers Island and Plum Island, to verify whether it is a suitable spot to anchor underwater turbines that could use tidal currents to someday meet the area's energy needs.

Scientific confirmation supports the need for alternative energy sources, melting ice caps are already having a significant impact in many regions, said the company’s president, Roger Bason.

Signs support that we’re in a significant period of change in the climate, Bason said. Without rattling the saber and creating some scare tactic, [tidal power] is good science. It’s a long way from reality, and will need some federal capital and support, he said.

Bason describes himself as one of 50,000 lobbyists pounding on doors in Washington to obtain federal stimulus money to facilitate pay for the study.

The Obama administration plans to spend $250 million for oceanic research in 2009 and Natural Currents Energy is one of four top companies vying for a share of that money, Bason said.

Bason has already been doing primary field work off Shelter Island and will be working in the next three years to inspect a wide range of factors that will eventually determine whether the Race area is appropriate for turbine installation, in terms of both the ability to generate sufficient power and the turbines’ impact on fish and other wildlife in the area.

The study will require tracking water levels and acceleration and tide heights resulting from gravitational pulls of the sun and moon. It will also look at the ocean floor to determine where turbines could be effectively anchored.

Natural Currents Energy will have bounty of company in its exploration, as agents from FERC, the Department of the Interior, the National Ocean Industries Association and the Army Corps of Engineers will all be monitoring the study. So, too, will officials from Suffolk County and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

The company will be looking to engage sport and commercial fisherman and recreational boaters in sharing observations, mainly as they relate to any impact such a development might have on fish in the area.

We have a very transparent process, Bason said.

If only 10% of the energy Bason thinks could be generated by these turbines were used for electricity, he expects it would generate 20% of Long Island’s power needs.

But installation is not cheap. At prevailing rates, it would cost $2 million to $3 million per megawatt (MW) to install a turbine and the region could supply an opportunity for installations producing hundreds of MW.

If preliminary tests over the next three years prove the project is feasible, it would take five to 10 years to build the system, Bason said.

In the first five years after the study, the company plans to have a pilot project license that would facilitate it to build a small bank of turbines.

Bason said he has spoken to Long Island Power Authority to get involved in the study.