SEQUIM — Scientists, politicians and local officials gathered to commemorate the U.S. Department of Energy’s first hybrid vessel — the RV Resilience — set to do research out of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in and around Sequim Bay.
U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Mountlake Terrace, broke a champagne bottle to christen the approximate $4.55 million, 50-foot ship, and U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, placed a ceremonial life ring on Sept. 5 after they spoke about the ship’s potential.
“Today is about a vision of pushing the envelope on (research and development) at the Energy Department’s only marine lab,” Cantwell said before a packed pier at PNNL-Sequim.
She called the lab a “hidden treasure” in Washington state that’s “working on discoveries that [may] one day turn algae into biofuels, or better protecting our beloved coastlines, where 40 percent of our population lives by monitoring things like eelgrass beds and studying ocean acidification, and helping secure renewable marine energy from natural movements of the ocean, like tides, waves and currents.”
The RV Resilience was built by Snow and Company in Seattle, with funding through the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and its Water Power Technologies Office in an effort to usher in blue economy technology and research renewable energy from the ocean, according to Energy department officials.
The vessel can operate on diesel engines or in electric mode with onboard battery banks that can be charged by the diesel engines or a rapid charging station at PNNL-Sequim.
It can travel up to 23 knots on the diesel engine or 7 knots by electric, and it features laboratory space, a large deck for up to 5,000 pounds of equipment, an A frame and a knuckle crane to help move equipment.
Dr. John Vavrinec, research scientist/dive officer, said RV Resilience is the 12th ship in DOE’s fleet.
Staff will be training on the ship in the coming months.
Chris Meinig, division director for PNNL’s Coastal Sciences Division, said when staff is in Sequim Bay, they’ll use it for half a day, recharge it at lunch time and go back out in the afternoon. They hope to use the Resilience closer to the ocean in the future, he said.
Meinig said the ship’s benefits include cutting down on carbon emissions and lowering impact on marine wildlife as the vessel is practically silent when it’s in electric mode.
It will be kept in off hours at John Wayne Marine for safety reasons, he said.
Some of its anticipated uses include studying coastal and environmental impacts, acoustic testing and surveys, and autonomous vehicle launch and recovery.
Kilmer described the vessel and PNNL’s efforts with four words: partnership, innovation, resilience and hope. He mentioned the many ongoing local, state and federal partnerships to support research.
Kilmer said the RV Resilience will expand PNNL-Sequim’s ability to conduct coastal and oceanographic research while helping to create economic opportunity and provide resilience in the face of a changing climate.
“With investments like this and the work (PNNL-Sequim does), all of us can have more hope for the future,” he said.
Dr. Jud Virden, PNNL associate lab director, said PNNL can work with companies to scale up technologies and “move them from the lab to the bench to the bay.”
“That’s very, very unique,” he said.
“We can now with the Resilience take those scaled-up versions (in a new facility to come) and lift them up, lift them onto the boat and put them out into the water and do real ocean testing.
“This bench-to-bay capability doesn’t exist anywhere else.”
He agreed with Cantwell that Sequim is a hidden treasure but said they don’t want to be hidden anymore.
“We are starting to scream proudly to the world we exist here at Sequim,” Virden said. “We’re making investments at Sequim. We want to grow Sequim.”
He added: “We are committed to doing world-class research that makes a difference to the people in the world.”
Other speakers included state Rep. Steve Tharinger, D- Port Townsend, Matt Grosso, acting director of Water Power Technologies Office, Ariel Marshall, chief of staff for the Office of the Undersecretary for Science and Innovation, Alejandro Moreno, associate principal deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Julie Turner, manager of the Department of Energy Pacific Northwest Site Office, and Steve Ashby, PNNL laboratory director.
Visitors also were given honorary plank owner certificates, typically given to a ship’s first crew when it’s commissioned.
For more about the RV Resilience, click here.
For more about Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Sequim, visit pnnl.gov/pnnl-sequim.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at matthew.nash@sequimgazette.com.
