So calm is the solar farm as its grid of thousands of panels bask gloriously in the sun. Quiet. Serene. You can almost smell the Tropicana suntan lotion. Wind turbines have it a little harder with unpredictable gusts and changing wind direction putting immense stress on blades, gears and other compenents. But of all these renewable sources, those that must rest in the ocean have it the toughest. Storms. Pounding waves. Salt. And who knows what else?

It’s why it comes as no surprise when attempts to capture the energy of our oceans don’t go as planned. The latest news comes out of Nova Scotia, where the province’s power company and partner OpenHydro Tidal Technology are trying to capture tidal energy in the Bay of Fundy. OpenHydro recently placed a 400-tonne, six-storey turbine in the Bay of Fundy, home of some of the most awesome and powerful tides in the world. Earlier this month, the two companies discovered that the harsh ocean environment had broken two of the turbine’s blades. The massive 1-megawatt machine is now scheduled to be removed sometime this fall. We’ve seen this story before with demonstration projects from Verdant, Pelamis Wave, Finavera and others. It’s not the technology doesn’t work, it’s that we haven’t been able to prove the technology can last for 20 or more years in service. The ocean is unforgiveable, as builders of offshore oil platforms and offshore wind projects known. That said, this is exactly why these demonstrations and pilot projects are so important. Unless we can test the many news wave, tidal and riverbed designs entering the market, we’ll never learn how to improve their designs. Computer modelling and simulations can’t replace real-world testing.

Finavera Renewables, a Vancouver-based wind and wave power developer, has enough troubles these days. The publicly traded company has shares trading at 5 cents and as an untested newcomer to the developer scene it’s considered much riskier than more established rivals when it comes to raising money, whether that be equity or debt. Not good when you’re staring in the face of the worst credit-crunch and financial-sector meltdown in at least a generation.

Nothing a prescription of Ativan can’t deal with, right? But then the California Public Utilities Commission comes along and nixes a wave-energy power purchase agreement between Finavera and Pacific Gas & Electric, which agreed to buy electricity from the Canadian company’s 2-megawatt wave project — the first commercial wave contract in the country, experts say. It was to use Finavera’s AquaBUOY technology, devices that turn the kinetic energy of vertical wave motion into emission-free electricity.

Greentech Media has the messy details here. The bottom line is that the commission declared the power-purchase price too high and the technology too unproven to proceed. Finavera has since put on a brave face, saying it will focus its efforts on projects under development in Canada and Ireland. But as nobel or attractive or economic any of those projects could be, the sad reality is that in this market at this time there’s not much wiggle room for setbacks.

NOTE: Speaking of Darwinism, the credit crunch and those least fit to survive, read this post from the Globe and Mail’s Andrew Willis about the struggles wind developer EarthFirst Canada is having because of difficulty finding financing. The death watch is on.