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The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved PacWave South, OSU's long-planned wave energy collection project. As I reported in June of last year, the project will install and test wave energy collection devices six miles off the coast between Waldport and Newport, with seafloor transmission cables coming ashore underneath Driftwood Beach. In the Driftwood Wayside parking area, the seafloor cables will connect underground to terrestrial cables which will proceed underground via "horizontal directional drilling" to an OSU facility just east of Highway 101, where the electricity generated will be transmitted to Central Lincoln PUD. Although the project will generate electricity, its primary purpose is to test different wave energy collection devices along with the infrastructure necessary for such a project. Construction in the Driftwood Wayside parking area should begin later this year. Details can be found by searching "PacWave South"

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Driftwood Beach From Driftwood Beach State Wayside
Parking Lot, Driftwood Beach State Wayside

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All Mile 204 Reports

Showing 8 of 56 reports

Mile 204

Driftwood Beach Wayside, Buckley Creek

August 9, 2024

Mile 204 isn't my usual mile, so I've waited to walk it again until work resumed on PacWave South's wave energy testing project at Driftwood Beach Wayside. https://pacwaveenergy.

Jon French

Mile 204

Driftwood Beach Wayside, Buckley Creek

November 19, 2023

Today marked my latest sighting of the old growth driftwood log that I've admired and whose comings and goings from Driftwood Beach I've documented since June 2020, when I first photographed it high on the beach south of Buckley Creek.

Jon French

Mile 204

Driftwood Beach Wayside, Buckley Creek

August 11, 2023

I had read that the 265-foot vessel Seacor Lee would be anchoring a mile off Driftwood Beach in support of OSU's PacWave South wave energy testing project, positioned so that divers from the ship could perform work on previously installed seafloor conduits.

Jon French

Mile 204

Driftwood Beach Wayside, Buckley Creek

June 17, 2023

I haven't walked Driftwood Beach regularly since the PacWave South wave energy project completed work underground in the Driftwood parking lot.

Jon French

Mile 204

Driftwood Beach Wayside, Buckley Creek

January 1, 2023

By the time I got to Driftwood Wayside, a lot of people had already arrived for their New Years Day beach walks, some 30 vehicles in the parking lot and 30 - 40 people down on the beach, accompanied by at least half as many dogs, almost all leashed.

Jon French

Mile 204

Driftwood Beach Wayside, Buckley Creek

October 23, 2022

This was probably the last dependably dry Mile 204 walk before the rains begin in earnest.

Jon French

Mile 204

Driftwood Beach Wayside, Buckley Creek

August 17, 2022

After the morning fog lifted and before the marine layer moved in, I walked from Seal Rock on Mile 205 to Beach Access 66C on Mile 203.

Jon French

Mile 204

Driftwood Beach Wayside, Buckley Creek

June 3, 2022

Driftwood Wayside is open again after PacWave's departure, but I was the only visitor on this breezy, drizzly day.

Jon French