November 18, 2012 — For centuries, the ocean provided a linchpin for New England’s economy, from fishing grounds that brought the first Europeans, to whaling that made New Bedford the nation’s richest city, to merchant ships that built New England’s first great fortunes.
Now the region is reinventing its maritime industry again, turning to the sea not for fish or whales or trade, but energy. From the Bay of Fundy to Long Island Sound, new technologies are harnessing the power of ocean tides and winds, promising not only an inexhaustible source of energy, but also hundreds of jobs, billions in revenues, and new life for struggling fishing communities along New England’s 473-mile coastline.
This future is still far off, but the first steps toward it are underway. Since September, an underwater generator built by a Maine company has used the powerful tides of Cobscook Bay near the Canadian border to make electricity distributed by local utilities. Researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, as well as universities in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, are working together to demonstrate similar technologies in the Cape Cod Canal and Muskeget Channel off Martha’s Vineyard.
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