Ocean Energy at the Outer Banks, with Dr. Lindsay Dubbs from North Carolina's Renewable Ocean Energy Program (Ep.22)

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North Carolina's Outer Banks are a popular vacation spot for millions of families who come for the hundreds of miles of sandy beaches, the surf and the sun. The Outer Banks are also well known historically as the place where the Wright Brothers first pioneered controlled flight more than 100 years ago.

These days, the Outer Banks are also the site of research into a new clean energy technology: marine hydrokinetic energy. On this episode of the podcast we are joined by Dr. Lindsay Dubbs, Co-Director of UNC Chapel Hill's Outer Banks Field Site, and Research Associate at the Renewable Ocean Energy Program at UNC's Coastal Studies Institute. We begin with Lindsay explaining what the Renewable Ocean Energy Program is and does. We then discuss some of the types of work its researchers are doing; some of the unique challenges that marine energy faces; how researchers are collecting oceanographic data and how it is being used; some of the different types of marine energy devices such as underwater turbines and kites; and the potential impacts of marine and hydrokinetic energy on marine life and ecosystems. We close with Lindsay describing the career path that led to her to working in the Renewable Ocean Energy Program, and offering a prediction about the future of renewable ocean energy.

Some of the projects and resources mentioned during the show include:

• Ocean Renewable Power Company's Maine Tidal Energy Project
• Verdant Power's Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy Project
• European Marine Energy Centre
• Resolute Marine Energy
• SAROS

Recorded August 10, 2017.

Published August 21, 2017.