Ocean energy development in Europe: Current status and future perspectives

Abstract

a b s t r a c tOcean energy has the potential to play a significant role in the future energy system, whilst contributing to the reduction of carbon emissions and stimulating economic growth in coastal and remote areas. Ocean energy has attracted increasing interest, particularly in the EU, which is currently at the forefront of ocean energy development.Tidal and Wave energy represents the two most advance types of ocean energy technologies. In the EU, the aim is to reach 100 GW of combined wave and tidal capacity installed by 2050. In order to achieve these targets the sector needs to overcome a series of challenges and barriers with regards to technology readiness, financing and market establishment, administrative and environmental issues and the availability of grid connections especially in remote areas. Currently these barriers are hindering the sector's progress; its ability to attract inwards investments and to engage with the supply chain to unlock cost-reduction mechanisms. A number of policy initiatives and mechanisms have been put in place to ensure that ocean energy technologies could become cost-competitive in the short term, in order to exploit the benefits that these technologies could provide to the EU.

Two-stage Monte Carlo simulation to forecast levelized cost of electricity for wave energy

“…Published estimates of wave energy LCOE vary widely [15], [18]- [20]. Several factors contribute to this variation.…”

“…Despite its potential and a surge of recent research activities focusing on numerical simulations [2]- [5], subcomponent improvements [6], [7], and integration with other renewable energy systems [8], the wave energy industry has seen comparably low commercial application in the U.S. [9] and globally [10]- [13]. The technical, environmental, and operational challenges of the wave energy industry may be analogous to those of offshore wind, though the latter has recently achieved over 14 GW of installed capacity [14] compared with less than 10 MW of wave energy [15]. The Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) of offshore wind has decreased along with growing capacity, approaching parity with other renewable and conventional sources [14] at a reference price of $126/MWh [16].…”

“…This decrease in cost with increasing capacity is often expressed by a learning rate, the percentage of cost reduction for each doubling of cumulative installed capacity. Latest reports from the US and EU forecasting the LCOE of wave energy [15], [17] neither include learning rates in their sensitivity analysis nor transfer industry trends reported in the offshore wind industry. This paper aims to do both.…”

A Method for Energy and Resource Assessment of Waves in Finite Water Depths

“…Magagna et al [18] collected the information of current and proposed wave energy deployments (see Figure 1), and it can be seen that most of the installed wave energy converters have been deployed in water depths less than 50 m, and these trends can be also seen for the proposed wave farms. Similarly, Johanning et al [19] indicated early that wave energy converters will be very likely installed in the shallow to intermediate depths typically at the 50 m contour in the open areas for wave energy production.…”

“…Note: the size of the bubble refers to the capacity of installed projects (full circle) or the maximum site capacity (circles). Source: courtesy of Davide Magagna [18].…”