Abstract
Market Intelligence
2009 was a good year for the ocean energy sector with US $246 million invested
in the sector, up from the 2008 figure. Key areas of development were wave
energy, and tidal and marine current projects. For both sectors, more devices
reached the prototype stage and were tested out at sea. Considerably more
funding has been available for projects to take this leap.
Portugal and the UK remain as the main countries for wave energy projects due
to generous grants and subsidies, targets and in the case of Portugal, a
feed-in tariff. If the Scottish parliament passes a proposal for wave energy
projects to receive five ROCs per MWh of electricity produced and three ROCs
per MWh for tidal energy projects instead of two ROCs currently received
across the UK, NRG EXPERT expects the bulk of UK projects to be developed
there. Other countries making significant inroads in the sector last year
include Australia, the US, New Zealand and other European countries,
especially Ireland.
The most established wave energy developer is still Pelamis, with many
companies not far behind. Larger players have started to show an interest in
wave energy. Petrobras is developing a device in conjunction with COPPE/UFRJ.
Airtricity, the Irish utility, has signed an agreement with Aquamarine Power
to develop 1 GW of projects by 2020. Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding is
planning to use Ocean Power technologies (OPT) devices to develop a 10 MW farm.
For tidal and marine current projects, most are being developed in the UK, the
US, Canada, Austral-asia and other European countries. Utilities have started
to show more interest in the sector, with several developing projects or
buying devices from developers, notably Nova Scotia Power, Scottish
Renewables, RWE Innogy and npower renewables. One utility, Alstom Hydro, went
one step further and bought the worldwide licence for Clean Current Power
Systems' tidal devices.
UK-based Marine Current Turbines continues to be the furthest along in terms
of commercialisation; however, several developers are not far behind. For
example, Hammerfast Strom has been operating a 300 kW for some time and has an
agreement to supply devices for Scottish Renewables projects. Verdant in the
US has signed a MoU with the China Energy Conservation Environment Protection
Group (CECEP) to develop projects in the country.
Although tidal barrages and lagoons are the most mature technology, very
little progress was made last year. A short list of five potential
‘Severn Tidal' projects was announced and a public consultation will be
held this year. However, one of the most interesting developments was a
proposal to combine a road bridge and a tidal barrage across the Duddadon
Estuary in Cumbria in the UK. As this would shear seventeen miles off the
existing journey between the towns of Barrow and Millom, it may be more
acceptable to the public than a tidal project on its own. Thus reducing
opposition to the devel-opment of the project. In the second half of this year
completion of the Sihwa Lake Tidal plant in Korea is expected. It will have a
larger installed capacity than the 240 MW La Rance power plant in France,
currently the largest plant in operation.
Highlights
Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) is still a long way from
commercialisation. DCNS, Lock-heed Martin and Xenesys have emerged as the main
companies involved in OTEC projects. Last year Lockheed Martin was awarded an
US $8 million component supply contract by the US military. NRG EXPERT expects
military bases to be a major use of OTEC due to the high cost of diesel
imports at remote island locations. Other major uses of OTEC, along with
direct power use, may be desalination and sea water air conditioning.
By far the most experimental technology is still the salinity gradient. In
November last year Statkraft commissioned a 2 to 4 kW prototype off Tofte near
Oslo, Norway. This project is one of the relatively few salinity gradient
projects, and is by far the most advanced. Thus it is unlikely that this will
be a major source of power in the short term.
Table of Contents
Executive Summary
- Background
- Technology development
- Market Development
- Tidal Energy
- Wave Energy
- Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC)
- Tidal or Marine Current Energy
- Salinity Gradients
- Manufacturing
2. Tidal Energy
- Advantages
- Disadvantages
- Technical concepts for exploiting Tidal Energy - Tidal Barrages
- Secondary water storage
- Current Development of Tidal Barrage Schemes
- Technical status and experience from operating systems
- France - La Rance 240 MW Tidal Barrage
- Canada - Annapolis 17.8 MW Tidal Barrage
- China - 11 MW of small Tidal Barrages
- Tidal barrage plant under construction
- Korea
- China Yalu River Tidal Barrage
- Experimental and proposed tidal barrages
- Scotland
- United Kingdom - Severn Estuary, Mersey Estuary
- Scottish schemes
- Russian Federation - Kislogubsk 400 kW
- Other tidal flow prospects
- Australia - Derby
- United States
- Argentina
- Canada
- China
- India
- Korea (Republic)
- Mexico
- Economic considerations
- Environmental aspects
3. Wave Energy
- Wave resources
- Wave energy technology
- WECS (Wave energy conversion systems)
- Oscillating water column (OWC)
- Wave surge or focussing devices - Tapchan (Tapered channel system)
- Floats or buoys
- Oscillating Water Column (OWC)
- Siadar Wave Energy Project (SWEP)
- Figure 3.6: MK3PC installed at Port Kembla
- Source; Oceanlinx
- Sperboy
- Voith Hydro (Wavegen)
- Point Absorber
- Finavera Renewables
- Ocean Power Technologies
- McCabe Wave Pump
- Pelamis Wave Power Ltd
- AWS Ocean Energy (Archimedes Wave Swing)
- Tapchan
- Wave Dragon
- Other
- Searaser
- Wave Hub
- Wave Propulsion
- Synergies with the offshore industry
- The road to commercial wave power
- Current status for Wave Energy development - Country Developments
- Australia
- China
- Denmark
- India
- Indonesia
- Ireland
- Japan
- Maldives
- Norway
- Portugal
- Romania
- Spain
- Sweden
- United Kingdom
- United States
4. Ocean Thermal Energy
- Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC)
- Additional benefits of OTEC technology - DOWA
- Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)
- Status of development and funding support
- Support organisations
- The International OTEC/DOWA Association (IOA)
- EU and Maritime Industries Forum
- Japan Association of Deep Ocean Water Applications
- Markets for OTEC
- Country Developments
- Cðte d' Ivoire
- Cuba
- Fiji
- French Polynesia
- Guadeloupe
- India
- Indonesia
- Jamaica
- Japan
- Kiribati
- Marshall Islands
- Nauru
- Netherlands Antilles
- New Caledonia
- Puerto Rico
- Sri Lanka
- St. Lucia
- Taiwan
- United States
5. Tidal or Marine Current Energy
- Marine Current Turbines (MCT) - The world' s first marine current turbine
- Stingray and the EB Frond, the Engineering Business (EB)
- The Marine Current resource
- Status of Marine Current technology
- Horizontal Axis Turbines (axial flow turbine)
- Vertical Axis Turbines (cross flow turbine)
- Synergies with the offshore industry
- Technical problems for research
- Experimental marine plant, Korea
- Future of Tidal and Marine Current Energy
6. Salinity Gradients
- Pressure retarded osmosis (PRO).
- Vapour compression
- Reverse dialysis (RED)
- Demonstration and commercialisation of salinity gradient power
7. Ocean Energy Conversion Costs
8. National Policies for Renewable Energy
- Renewable energy targets
- Feed-in tariffs and RPS
- EU and feed-in tariffs
- US and RPS
- The feed-in tariff in Europe
- The evolution of RPS Policy in the United States
- Comparison of feed-in tariffs and RPS
- Europe - the EU Renewable Energy Directive
- Investor confidence, price, and policy cost
- Effectiveness
- Innovation and technology diversity
- Ownership structure
- Conclusion
- Feed-in tariffs in the United States
9. Benefits of Different Forms of Energy
10. Acknowledgements
Figures
- Figure 1.1: Status of ocean energy technologies, December 2007
- Figure 1.2: Planned and historical development of wave and tidal projects,
MW
- Figure 1.3: Project status by country, December 2007
- Figure 1.4: Level of Research & Development and Demonstration investment
by members of the IEA Implementing Agreement on Ocean Energy Systems
- Figure 2.1: The Global Tidal Resource
- Figure 2.2: La Rance Tidal Barrage
- Figure 2.3: Tidal Current Power
- Figure 2.4: Base Data for the Severn Barrage
- Figure 2.5: Proposed Severn Barrage
- Figure 3.1: Wave power resources of the world
- Figure 3.2: The Mighty Whale
- Figure 3.3: Offshore test centres for wave energy
- Figure 3.4: Proposed European Test Centres
- Figure 3.5: Development programme for WECs
- Figure 3.6: MK3PC installed at Port Kembla
- Figure 3.7: SPERBOY Oscillating Water Column device
- Figure 3.8: Limpet shoreline energy module
- Figure 3.9: Finavera AquabuOY
- Figure 3.10:Floating buoy energy converters
- Figure 3.11: CETO device
- Figure 3.12: Wavebob
- Figure 3.13: Wave Star device
- Figure 3.14: Pelamis
- Figure 3.15: Archimedes Wave Swing III (AWS III)
- Figure 3.16: Wave Dragon Floating Tapchan
- Figure 3.17: Waveplane
- Figure 3.18: Searaser
- Figure 3.19:Wave Hub
- Figure 3.20: The Orcelle, sustainably powered ship
- Figure 3.21: Pelamis wave farm in Portugal
- Figure 3.22: The UK wave power resource
- Figure 3.23: Humboldt WaveConnect"! Pilot Project
- Figure 4.1: OTEC resource map
- Figure 4.2: The OTEC device
- Figure 4.3: Energy Island systems diagram perspective view
- Figure 4.4: Makai Ocean Engineering List Open Cycle OTEC plant
- Figure 5.1: The Seagen Marine Current Turbine
- Figure 5.2: SeaGen in Strangford Lough
- Figure 5.3: Marine Current Turbine second generation device
- Figure 5.4: Third generation SeaGen device
- Figure 5.5: Atlantic Resources' AK 1000 turbine
- Figure 5.6: BioSTREAM device
- Figure 5.7: Fri-El Green Power ship
- Figure 5.8: Hammerfest Strom HS1000 turbine
- Figure 5.9: Early rendering of Hydro Green Energy' s dual ducted
hydrokinetic turbine array (HTA) as viewed from below the surface of the water
- Figure 5.10: Lunar Energy' s Rotech Tidal Turbine
- Figure 5.11: Ocean Renewable Power' s RivGen"!, TidGen"!, and OCGen"!
systems
- Figure 5.12: Open Hydro seabed mounted open-centre turbine
- Figure 5.13: TidEL Tidal Energy Device
- Figure 5.14: Stingray and EB Frond Wave Energy Devices
- Figure 5.15: Verdant Power' s free flow system
- Figure 5.16: Marine Current resource in the UK
- Figure 5.17: Comparison of offshore wind turbine and marine or tidal
current turbine projects
- Figure 7.1: Wave power installed cost curve versus other renewables
- Figure 7.2: Generation costs from Ocean Energy Conversion estimated
experience
- Figure 7.3: EU wind and wave deployment and costs
- Figure 7.4: Capital cost breakdown for a particular wave energy device
- Figure 7.5: Capital cost breakdown for installation of a particular tidal
stream energy device in a tidal stream farm of a certain size
- Figure 8.1: National renewable energy policies in EU countries
- Figure 8.2: US states with RPS regulations, August 2010
Tables
- Table 1.1: Marine Energy sources and product
- Table 1.2: The size of the oceanic energy resource
- Table 1.3: Ocean energy projects installed or under construction in IEA
Ocean member states, kW, end 2009
- Table 1.4: Consent process for ocean energy projects in selected countries
- Table 2.1: Prospective Sites for Tidal Energy Projects
- Table 2.2: Comparison of World Tidal Schemes in Existence or Proposed
- Table 2.3: Identified for Possible Tidal Barrage Plants
- Table 3.1: Six types of WEC identified by the EMEC
- Table 3.2: List of wave developers
- Table 3.3: Status of known wave energy projects in November 2008
- Table 3.4: Schedule and budget for the development of a WEC prototype
- Table 3.5: Six Pelamis projects at various stages of development
- Table 3.6: Comparison of three different wave devices at three sites in
Canada
- Table 3.7: Required price of electricity for a 10-year simple payback
period for three wave devices, C$
- Table 3.8: Status of wave energy projects in Denmark at the end of 2009
- Table 3.9: Planned development of wave energy devices in Ireland
- Table 3.10: Recipients Prototype Development Funds
- Table 3.11: Prototype Development Funds for different project phases
- Table 3.12: Potential for Marine Energy Converter Technologies in New
Zealand
- Table 3.13: Recipients of the ‘Wave and Tidal Stream Energy
Technologies' funding round
- Table 3.14: Recipients of Round 1 of the WATERS fund
- Table 3.15: Wave project developers awarded licences for Crown Estate
marine sites
- Table 3.16: ROCs received per technology, April 2010
- Table 3.17: Wave device testing sites in the UK
- Table 3.18: Wave projects included in the Advanced Water Technologies
receiving DOE funding, 2009
- Table 3.19: Recipients of SBIR funding
- Table 4.1: Seawater air conditioning plants
- Table 4.2: Reported advantages and challenges for the Energy Island
- Table 4.3: OTEC projects included in the Advanced Water Technologies
receiving DOE funding, 2009
- Table 5.1: Tidal or marine current energy devices
- Table 5.2: Methods to fix turbine energy converters to the seabed
- Table 5.3: Tidal or marine current developers
- Table 5.4: Status of known marine and hydrokinetic projects in November
2008
- Table 5.5: Kilowatt of electricity produced per tonne of turbine
- Table 5.6: Biopower projects
- Table 5.7: Verdant Power tidal projects
- Table 5.8: Distribution of potential tidal sites in Canada
- Table 5.9: Recipients of Clean Energy Funds
- Table 5.10: Ocean projects awarded ICE funds in British Columbia
- Table 5.11: Three tidal technology projects in the Netherlands
- Table 5.12: Tidal project developers awarded licences for Crown Estate
marine sites
- Table 5.13: Tidal projects included in the Advanced Water Technologies
receiving DOE funding, 2009
- Table 8.1 Renewables targets and support schemes of European countries
- Table 8.2 Non-European countries with renewable energy targets and plans
- Table 8.3: State RPS resource tiers
- Table 9.1: The Advantages and Disadvantages of Different Energy
Technologies
