By HydroWorld
Pacific Crossing, owner of PC-1, a subsea telecommunications cable linking the United States and Japan, is objecting to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approval of a pilot project license for the 600-kW Admiralty Inlet Pilot tidal project to be installed near PC-1 in Washington's Puget Sound.
FERC issued the hydrokinetic pilot project license (No. 12690) on March 20, concluding the project would not pose a risk to the undersea fiber-optic communication cable, which is located 170 meters from the project site.
“It is disappointing that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a pilot license for an experimental tidal energy project in Admiralty Inlet despite objections from Native Americans, environmentalists and Pacific Crossing,” the company's chief financial officer, Kurt Johnson, said. “FERC's license approves the placement of two 425-ton turbines dangerously close to PC-1, a major international telecommunications cable, and poses a serious threat to PC-1.”
