27.
OCEAN ENERGY TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT
Ocean hydrokinetic technologies capable of extracting
electrical power from wave, tidal, currents, and ocean thermal technologies
capable of extracting power from temperature differences between the surface
and deep ocean are immature; yet, an emerging domestic
and international industry is moving rapidly to develop and deploy
demonstration devices at sea. Support for a Federal ocean renewables
program has been gaining momentum to address the emerging global market
potential. U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Wind and Hydropower Technology
Program (WHTP) under the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
(EERE), has begun preliminary planning, in close
partnership with industry and the national laboratories, to start a Federal
program designed to accelerate the technology evolution of commercial-scale
Ocean Energy systems.
Ocean energy systems are typically developed along careful multi-step pathway leading from design concept, to scale model development, laboratory testing, open water testing, full-scale open water testing, and finally to commercial demonstration. Companies are often judged by how far they have proceeded along a gauntlet of regulatory requirements, structural design development; scientific evaluation and testing; and bench-scale, pilot-scale, and full-scale demonstrations. A more valuable metric for evaluating technical viability and commercial applicability would be to grade the technologies upon performance, cost, and reliability criteria that can be effectively applied to each device in a standardized format.
This topic addresses the commercial development path, with Phase 1 designed to demonstrate, through analysis, the viability of concepts on the basis of performance, cost, and reliability. Concepts shall be judged by their potential to achieve and demonstrate competitive life-cycle cost of energy based on rigorous engineering analysis. Applicants are encouraged to submit design plans and accompanying analysis for advancing a design or concept to the next level of development. Eligible Ocean Energy projects would include:
Each device configuration is different in terms of its capture mechanism and conversion technology. Emphasis in Phase 1 will be on the applicant’s capability to 1) demonstrate the economic potential of the proposed concept, and 2) provide analysis to demonstrate accurate accounting of external conditions and load response for generating engineering design load cases. Economics shall be based on an arbitrary 50-MW utility scale generating plant under external conditions defined by the applicant.
Proposed projects that involve the participation of a DOE national laboratory must obtain approval from the laboratory prior to submission, and provide evidence of that approval in the grant application.
Grant applications are sought only in the following subtopics.
a. Ocean Wave Energy Converters—Wave energy converters have significant potential for utility-scale energy production, but even while dozens of international companies are currently developing systems, only a few commercial scale projects have been deployed worldwide. Grant applications are sought to advance critical wave energy conversion technologies – including point absorbers, oscillating water column devices, over-topping devices, and wave attenuators – along the commercial development path by demonstrating the economic and technical viability of their inventions.
Grant applications must provide: (1) a technical and integrated operational description of the proposed system; (2) an analysis for determining critical design load cases for the concept; (3) a discussion of the cost viability of the concept at utility scale; and (4) a discussion of the economics, based on expected energy production, initial capital cost, and reliability in terms of maintenance, refurbishment, levelized replacement costs, and decommissioning. The Phase I report should summarize the analysis methods used to determine key performance, cost, and reliability parameters, and to accurately determine external conditions, operating load responses, and design load cases. It also should provide the details of all analyses, including a scaling exercise to expand the concept to a 50-MW project scale.
Note that the focus of this topic is on wave energy conversion systems that can be expanded to 50-MW electric power facilities. Applications dealing with partial systems are not of interest and will be declined.
Questions -
contact Dennis Lin (dennis.lin@ee.doe.gov)
b. Hydrokinetic Turbines—Devices that operate on the principal of converting the kinetic energy of moving water currents (including tidal, ocean, or river currents) into electricity have the potential to play a role in utility-scale energy production. Although dozens of international companies are currently developing systems, only a few commercial scale prototypes have been deployed worldwide. Grant applications are sought to advance critical hydrokinetic turbine technologies – including horizontal and vertical axis water turbines, either tethered or fixed-mounted in a moving water stream – along the commercial development path by demonstrating the economic and technical viability of their systems.
Grant applications must provide: (1) a technical and integrated operational description of the proposed system; (2) an analysis for determining the critical design load cases of the concept; (3) a discussion of the cost viability of the concept at utility scale; and (4) a discussion of the economics, based on expected energy production, initial capital cost, and reliability in terms of maintenance, refurbishment, levelized replacement costs, and decommissioning. The Phase I report should summarize the analysis methods used to determine key performance, cost and reliability parameters. It also should provide the details of all analyses including a scaling exercise to determine the system economics for the concept at a 10-MW project scale.
Note that the focus of this topic is on hydrokinetic energy conversion systems that can be expanded to 10-MW electric power facilities. Applications dealing with partial systems are not of interest and will be declined.
Questions -
contact Dennis Lin (dennis.lin@ee.doe.gov).
c. Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Systems (OTEC): Systems that generate power using the temperature difference between cold deep water and warm surface water were first proposed in 1881 by d’Arsonval and were demonstrated in Cuba in 1930 by Georges Claude. Despite large public and private investments over the years, a commercial technology has not yet emerged. The challenges of: low thermal efficiencies due to the relatively small temperature differences in the ocean; high capital costs due to the low efficiencies and the ocean environment; geographic constraints due to the need for warm surface and cold deep water and due to the need to get the electric power to shore; and the difficulties of ocean engineering have all limited development. Today, advances in heat exchanger design and materials and in power conversion systems have increased the technical potential; the identification of new end products such as ammonia and, in the longer term, hydrogen have reduced the geographic constraints; and increased costs for products such as ammonia have increased the economic potential. These and other factors make it worthwhile to re-examine the OTEC opportunity.
Areas of interest include OTEC systems. The Phase I report should summarize and detail the analysis methodology and results for the cost, performance, and reliability, production, external conditions, and operating load responses and design load cases. It should provide the details of the analyses including a scaling exercise to expand the concept to a 50-MW project scale (or 100 MW if that is determined to be a more commercially viable scale). Applications dealing with partial systems are not of interest and will be declined.
Grant applications must provide (1) a technical and integrated operational description of the proposed system; (2) a detailed engineering analysis of the concept at full scale; (3) a detailed engineering-economic analysis of the system at full scale based on the system and component capital costs, O&M costs (including refurbishment, levelized replacement, etc.), labor, fuel, and other costs such as decommissioning, and the expected energy and/or other (ammonia, hydrogen, water, etc.) production returns; and (4) analysis of the critical design factors of the approach.
Questions -
contact Dennis Lin (dennis.lin@ee.doe.gov)
Subtopic a.
References:
1. Hagerman, G. and Bedard, R. “E2I/EPRI Specification – Guidelines for Preliminary Estimation of Power Production by Offshore Wave Energy Conversion Devices” E2I/EPRI-WP-US-001, December 22, 2003.
2. Previsic, M., Siddiqui, O., and Bedard, R. “EPRI Global E2I Guideline: Economic Assessment Methodology for Offshore Wave Power Plants” E2I/EPRI WP-US-002 Rev 4, November 30, 2004.
3. Previsic, M. and Bedard, R. “Methodology for Conceptual Level Design of Offshore Wave Power Plants” E2I/EPRI WP 005-US, June 9, 2004.
Subtopic b.
References:
1.
Hagerman,
G., Polagye, B., Bedard,
R., and Previsic, M. “ Methodology
for Estimating Tidal Current Energy Resources and Power Production by Tidal
In-Stream Energy Conversion (TISEC) Devices” EPRI-TP-001-
2.
Bedard, R. Siddiqui, O. Previsic, M., and Polagye, B.,
“Economic Assessment Methodology for Tidal In-Straem
Power Plants”, EPRI-TP-002
3.
Previsic, M. and Bedard, R.,
“Methodology for Conceptual Level Design of tidal In-Stream Energy Conversion
(TISEC) Power Plants”, EPRI TP-005
Subtopic c. References:
1. Thomas B. Johansson, Henry Kelly, Amulya K.N. Reddy, and Robert H. Williams, “Renewable Energy: Sources for Fuels and Electricity”, Island Press, 1993
2. Patrick Takahashi and Andrew Trenka, “Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion”, John Wiley & sons, 1996.
*All references can be accessed at: http://archive.epri.com/oceanenergy/streamenergy.html#reports