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Introduction to Marine Energy: Regional Developments and Future Outlook

This introduction discusses the basics of marine renewable energy, including tidal, wave, offshore wind, and ocean thermal technologies. It explores global installations, wave energy devices, technology feasibility, societal concerns, economic viability, and environmental compatibility. The article also presents opportunities and challenges associated with marine renewables and considers pessimistic and optimistic perspectives on the future of this industry.

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Introduction to Marine Energy: Regional Developments and Future Outlook

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  1. Introduction to Marine Energy • Brian Polagye • University of Washington • Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center Work Session: Regional Developments in Marine Energy March 23, 2011

  2. Marine Renewable Energy Tidal and Ocean Current Wave Ocean Thermal Offshore Wind

  3. Tidal Energy Basics Gearbox-Generator Pile Gravity Base Direct Drive Generator 20-60 m Drive Train • Rotor • 5-20 m • 10-30 rpm 2-4 m/s Foundation

  4. Global Tidal Energy Installations • FORCE • OpenHydro • CleanCurrent • MCT • Atlantis • EMEC • OpenHydro • Atlantis • Tidal Generation Ltd. • Voith Hydro CleanCurrent Hammerfest Strøm Pulse Tidal Snohomish PUD/OpenHydro Voith Hydro MCT ORPC Verdant Power

  5. Wave Energy Devices • Oscillating Water Column • Oscillating Water Surge • Attenuator • Overtopping • Point Absorber

  6. Global Wave Energy Installations • EMEC • Pelamis • Aquamarine WaveGen Wave Dragon CPT Wavebob OPT Pelamis OceanLinx Finavera

  7. Marine Renewable Energy Challenge Technology Feasibility Societal Concerns Economic Viability Environmental Compatibility

  8. Technology Feasibility Opportunities Challenges • Generation of energy from renewable resources • Leveraging of existing energy and maritime technologies • Deploying technology at low cost in harsh environments • Lack of standards • Lack of test facilities

  9. Environmental Compatibility Opportunities Challenges • Develop truly sustainable sources of energy • Mitigate potential environmental impacts through careful design • Leverage projects as cabled observatories to better understand the oceans • Regulatory “chicken and egg” • Lack of prioritization for studies • Necessary monitoring technologies are under-developed • Overlap with basic research questions

  10. Societal Concerns Opportunities Challenges • Renewable energy displacing fossil fuels • De facto marine sanctuaries • Low/no viewshed conflicts • Existing uses • Information gaps for marine spatial planning

  11. Economic Viability Opportunities Challenges • Local source of renewable energy • Reinvigorate local manufacturing • Distributed generation as an alternative to transmission upgrades • Energy is cheap • Cost to deploy and operate marine renewables currently higher than terrestrial alternatives • Long and uncertain permitting requirements increase cost and financial risk

  12. What is the Future for Marine Renewables? Pessimists Optimists • Environmental and social costs outweigh the benefits of marine renewable power • A single technology may not be able to satisfy all human needs • Oceans are already too crowded by existing uses • Astounding progress in the past five years. For example, rated power for tidal turbines is already on-par with modern wind turbines • UK roadmap calls for 2 GW of wave and tidal to come online by 2020 • US roadmap calls for 20-30 GW of wave and tidal to come online in the next 20 years

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