E nergy is very important to the world as a driver of the modern society. According to estimations done by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the total global energy consumption is about 17 500 TW·h/yr [1]. In the past, fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas supplied the biggest part of this global consumption, and they were far larger than those of the renewable energy sources as Fig. 1 shows for 1973 [2]. In 2011, the production of renewable energy and global energy consumption increased, even though renewable energy was still much smaller than fossil fuels as Fig. 1 shows. [2].There are several sources of renewable energy such as hydro, wind, solar, biofuel, and marine energy. However, since 71% of the earth's surface is covered by sea, marine energy is a meaningful resource for consideration, especially when faced with an ever-growing energy demand. Marine energy includes: offshore wind energy, wave, tidal, tidal current, thermal, and salinity gradient energy. Fig. 2 is an illustration of the potential of the six marine energy types [3]. The total marine energy that could be harnessed is estimated at around 100 000 TW·h/yr [1], [3] which far exceeds all of the present human needs around the world. This makes it important to understand the marine energy generation systems and the monitoring and control issues, which are discussed in this article.
Marine Energy Systems OverviewMarine energy generation systems differ primarily in the ways the energy is captured and then converted into electrical energy. Most other building blocks in the generation systems remain nearly the same after being transformed into the electrical form. Hence, attention should be directed at the mechanisms needed for converting marine energy into electrical energy. The different technologies are discussed as follows.
Offshore Wind EnergyOffshore wind turbines are either fixed to the sea or float at the surface. Fixed wind turbines are anchored to the seabed to improve structural stability. However, they are difficult to operate as the increase of the distance from the shore where the wind is more abundant. Therefore, floating wind turbines mounted on pontoons have been developed. The pontoons must be attached to the sea bed by long steel cables. This floating wind turbine technology is still undergoing tests to determine its practicality as the systems are typically located in deep water. Beside their anchoring differences, both types of offshore wind generation systems share the same operating principle, the turbine blades are rotated by the wind. Energy from the blades is then passed along the rotating axis Fig. 1. Distribution of global energy supplies in 1973 and 2011 [2]. Fig. 2. Relative potentials of different marine energy sources.