“Great project, wrong location” is the summary put forward by Maui Tomorrow, a citizens planning and environmental group, talking about the proposed wave power project put forward by Seattle company Grays Harbor Ocean Energy Co.

The proposed Penguin Bank wave power project is a massive renewable energy project that would sit in Hawaiian waters between Oahu and Molokai. It would consist of up to 100 raised platforms that would harness the wave and wind power over an area of roughly 80 square miles. The proposal specifies that the potential power that could be harnessed may be up to 1,100 MW of electricity.

The alarming aspect of the proposed renewable energy development is that it would be situated in an area that is home to Hawaii’s largest concentration of endangered humpback whales. It is also an important feeding ground for Hawaiian monk seals.

On the one hand the Grays Harbor company is to be applauded for such an ambitious renewable energy project but the sensitivity of the chosen location puts the wisdom of the choice into question.

Gray’s Harbor president Burton Hamner has argued that the project would not pose any serious environmental threat because the submerged parts would be immobile and, once they have been installed would simply be a “bunch of sticks in the water”.

In October Grays Harbor applied for a preliminary permit from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, (FERC) for the Hawaii project and six others like it proposed for the west and east coasts of the mainland. The permit is for the wave portion of the project only and does not grant any construction rights, it merely allows the company development rights over the area for the purposes of doing a feasibility study over a three year period.

According to Gray’s Harbor the project would not be commercially viable without the wind component.