The next frontier for wave energy may be far from any ocean. Beaver Island, situated in the middle of Lake Michigan, seeks to be the next major testing ground for hydrokinetic energy from the waves that lap up against its shore. Proponents of the pilot program say that the cutting-edge clean energy tech will provide more reliable energy to the remote island while also advancing the nascent energy form for applications in other global contexts.
Earlier this month, researchers from the University of Michigan set up prototype devices along the island’s shoreline to convert kinetic energy from waves into electricity. These initial mini-prototypes successfully powered a light bulb and charged a cell phone, serving as a proof of concept for a larger model capable of providing a backup source of electricity to the island’s 600 permanent residents and its many summer holidayers.
At present, Beaver Island receives its electricity from mainland Michigan via cables that cross 30 miles of lakebed. This setup leaves the island highly vulnerable to blackouts thanks to extreme weather or issues with the cables, both of which are common in the Great Lakes region. Islanders hope that integrating wave energy will help to provide more stability and resilience in the energy supply without racking up huge energy bills or contributing to greenhouse gas emissions.
“It’s a combination of looking at cost savings and also wanting to be independent and not dependent on the mainland for everything,” Seamus Norgaard, who lives on the island during the summer, told Grist for an article about the University of Michigan project published earlier this month. “And then also the environmental outlook,” he went on to say.
In addition to being an incubator for wave energy technology, the Great Lakes region has received increasing attention in recent years as a potentially ideal site for wind power expansion. While wind power is in a politically sticky era on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border, many experts argue that wind power should be scaled up in the region, which is naturally suited for it.
“Wind turbines in the Great Lakes have the potential to produce huge amounts of clean energy in one of the most populated regions in North America,” the Canadian Broadcasting Company argued last year. They pointed to the Trump administration’s anti-wind stance as a key opportunity for Ontario to lean into the development of wind power in the region to boost energy autonomy as well as to further decarbonization efforts. The article contends that building offshore wind in the Great Lakes would ease Ontario’s reliance on U.S. natural gas imports at a critical point of friction between the allied nations.
“Given that we’re in a sovereignty crisis and affordability crisis and a climate crisis,” said Jack Gibbons, the chair of the Ontario Clean Air Alliance, “this is a solution that can address all three of those crises and we should just be moving forward as quickly as possible.”
And now, there’s another crisis to add to the mix. The AI boom has caused energy demand projections to skyrocket, incentivizing an ‘all-of-the-above’ approach to energy development which includes wind power and cutting-edge alternatives like hydrokinetics. However, the AI boom is not just an energy crisis – it’s also a water crisis. And that crisis, too, is knocking at the door of the Great Lakes.
In a region where water usage and over-withdrawal is already a hot topic, the expansion of AI datacenters could cause water stress and conflict to tick up significantly in coming years. While it’s hard to imagine the Great Lakes ever lacking water, it’s a real threat. And if there’s one thing you need to support a new wave energy venture, not to mention life itself, it’s water.
By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com
