Tidal Power Could Be The Wave Of The Future in S.F.

Jun. 19 - KGO (KGO) -- Harnessing the energy from waves to help power homes and businesses is something that's been discussed in San Francisco for several years. Now the city's received more than a million dollars to conduct a comprehensive study. The mayor calls it an historic agreement.

Tidal power could literally be the wave of the future in San Francisco.

PG&E, the city and a company called golden gate energy signed an agreement today to study the possibility of turning the tides under the golden gate bridge, into electricity. PG&E is providing $1.5 million dollars for research -- the city $346,000 dollars.

Thomas King, PG&E Chairman & CEO: "the opportunity for us is to try to understand what is the true energy we can harness and feed into the city."

Think of underwater windmills. A video animation from Golden Gate Energy Company gives an example of the technology. It has never been done on a large scale, but an expert at UC Berkeley says tidal power is feasible and could be cost effective.

Prof. Alex Farrell, PhD, U.C. Berkeley: "The cost of the energy would be in the lower range of the cost of energy you buy from all sorts of sources and would certainly be something that is affordable."

There are environmental concerns.

Mayor Gavin Newsom, San Francisco: "We want to make sure it doesn't impact not only mammals, wildlife, but also the tidal flow itself."

Tidal power isn't the only alternative energy source the city is looking into. Today the Board of Supervisors gave final approval to a measure to examine whether generating electricity from air, wind and fuel cells would be cheaper than PG&E.

Ross Mirkarimi, San Francisco Supervisor: "It's time San Francisco got serious about charting our energy future. We can simply just rely on PG&E."

In fact, supervisor Mirkarimi introduced a measure today to put any tidal power technology under the city's control. The study of the waves potential is scheduled to begin this summer and take about a year to complete.

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