SITE SELECTION & PLANNING
FEATURE SPONSOR
DE-RISK MARINE ENERGY PROJECTS
Wave & tidal energy presents a huge opportunity. It has been estimated that as much as 240GW of marine energy capacity could be installed worldwide by 2050* - the equivalent of 80 nuclear power plants
GLOBAL PROGRESS Tidal range, tidal stream and wave energy technologies are emerging around the world at different rates. In France, GDF Suez and EDF are developing two pilot tidal energy farms to tap the energy of the Alderney Race for operation by 2018. In Australia, Carnegie Wave Energy has invested over $140m to fund the development of its wave energy technology.
Established tidal power stations include Sihwa Lake, South Korea, the world’s largest power-producing tidal barrage with an installed capacity of 254MW. Closer to home in the Pentland Firth, total production from Phase 1A of the Meygen Project has now surpassed 2.6GWh with over 800MWh dispatched to the grid in September 2017.
Diversity of supply is vital for national energy policies and the demand for the means of storing energy will grow as the supply relies more on sources of power such as wind which are less predictable. This could favour the development of tidal range schemes.
OPTIMISING SITE SELECTION One of the initial challenges is to identify suitable sites for installing and operating tidal lagoons, arrays of tidal stream devices, or wave devices. Areas with the greatest
For example, HR Wallingford has developed a global tidal, wave, tsunami and storm surge modelling system which can provide a marine energy resource estimation for anywhere in the world. Believed to be one of the first systems of its kind
potential for energy generation are often the most demanding in terms of the practicalities of installing and operating devices, meaning a balance has to be sought between the energy yield available and the practical constraints of operating devices in hostile environments.
Independent civil engineering and environmental hydraulics consultancy, HR Wallingford, has worked with many different developers, funders and regulators and joined forces with turbine manufacturers and civil engineering contractors, to provide detailed understanding of the site conditions required to minimise risk and to maximise the potential return from investment in different marine renewable energy schemes.
to provide a comprehensive, global picture of available energy resources, this system can also be used to understand the key engineering assumptions, or marine design basis, for an energy conversion system.
ROBUST MODELLING As projects move into the business case for investment phase, so the demand for more reliable information about the fundamental aspects of marine energy schemes increases. HR Wallingford uses a combination of numerical modelling, detailed physical model testing and in-house knowledge, to provide accurate energy yield and costing models for tidal lagoon or barrage schemes, enabling a robust appraisal of the potential returns on investment for any possible site.
Computer models of the marine tidal systems are used to assess the energy yield potential from tidal range and stream devices and also examine effects that influence other aspects of scheme viability. These can include the ecological effects of intertidal areas within tidal impoundments and the influences on water levels further afield that may affect flood risk. It is important to understand these issues early on, as they influence how readily a scheme will gain consent.
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www.wavetidalenergynetwork.co.uk
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