With the advent of a new administration in Washington DC, the chance of getting funding restored for research, development and implementation of alternate energy sources for American Samoa is very real, according to Mauigoa Reupena Tagaloa, the head of the Territorial Energy Office.

Housed in temporary offices in Lions Park, Mauigoa spoke with passion about the cutting-edge energy technology which may become available to the Territory under our new president, who has been given a mandate to wean our nation off its dependency upon oil.

Mauigoa said that the U.S. has fallen behind in some very promising areas of renewable alternate energy. He has a vision which includes harnessing the untapped energy of the ocean. Surrounded as American Samoa is by the vast Pacific, Mauigoa and his staff have seen promising ideas placed on the shelf because of politics.

One alternate energy source being discussed and possibly funded once again is: Ocean Current Technology, known as OCT, a potential energy solution which seeks to harness large amounts of energy stored within the ocean.

According to an Ocean Current Technology “White Paper” this technology will tap into the relatively constant flow of ocean currents, which carry large amounts of energy that can be captured and converted into usable form.

Ocean currents, the white paper explains, are constantly on the move, and form complex patterns affected by wind, water salinity, temperature, the topography of the ocean floor, and the rotation of the earth. These currents are driven by wind and sun-heated water near the equator, and are (relatively) constant. They flow in one direction, in contrast to tidal currents closer to the shore, which ebb and flow.

Some examples of ocean currents are the Gulf Stream, Florida Straits Current, and California Current.

According to the White Paper, ocean currents move slowly (relative to typical wind speeds) but they carry a great deal of energy because of the density of water. Water is more than 800 times denser than air, “so for the same surface area, water moving 12 miles per hour exerts about the same amount of force as a constant 110 mph wind”

Ocean currents thus contain an enormous amount of untapped energy. It has been estimated that taking just 1/1000th the available energy from the Gulf Stream would supply Florida with 35% of its electrical needs.

According to the TEO Director, many countries are currently pursuing ocean current energy, including Japan, China, and some European Union countries. He also noted, however, that current marine technology, while promising, is still at an early stage of development.

There are no commercial grid-connected turbines currently operating to date, and only a small number of prototypes and demonstration units have been tested. Some of these technologies have been developed for use with tidal currents in near-shore environments, rather than using the deep ocean currents.

One of these “near shore” projects is being developed by a group calling itself OPT, short for Ocean Powered Technology, Inc. based in New Jersey. Its CEO and founder, George Taylor, first saw the potential of wave energy as a young surfer in his native Australia. At the age of 74, this engineer is still determined to harness the ocean. His company has recently installed a “Power Buoy” wave power generation unit in Kaneohe Bay, O’ahu under an ongoing program with the U.S. Navy. It will be connected to the O’ahu power grid, signaling the beginning of potential new power sources for the islands. Extensive environmental impact studies have rated it as “having no significant impact on the environment” — the highest rating a company can receive after studying potential impact to sealife, the seabed, and water quality.

Mauigoa has been in contact with George Taylor over the years, and stated that Mr. Taylor has a plan which also includes American Samoa. But lack of political will, combined with funding cutbacks, put a stop to further partnership with OPT a while back.

The TEO director said he will immediately begin to explore funding sources where we can move forward with projects exploring alternate energy. Solar power, wind turbines, ocean currents, all hold great potential for the islands. But, as noted by one local engineer concerned with energy problems and the environmental issues surrounding them, no single solution can meet our island’s energy requirements.

In an essay on the challenges facing the new president (“Obama’s Toughest Challenge”), five Colleges professor and author Michael T. Klare wrote, in part:  “The full potential of alternative energy (be it wind, solar, ocean current, geothermal) cannot be realized until at least two other hurdles are overcome: the development of efficient storage systems to collect energy when the sun and wind are strong and release it when they are not,.. and the construction of an expanded... electrical grid to connect areas of reliable wind .... and sunshine..... with the areas of greatest need.”

Wherever emerging technology may take us, the head of TEO is ready to go there.