The objectives for this task was to advance analysis and simulation capabilities for wave-WEC interactions and PTO analysis in nonlinear ocean waves. The improvements involve advancements in the generation of nonlinear wave time series and in nonlinear control strategies resulting in a detailed examination of WEC-wave interaction under scarcely-studied nonlinear conditions.
Starting in 2018, the U.S. Department of Energy's Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO), initiated the development of a prize competition as a foundational investment of Powering the Blue Economy, the prize encouraged the development of small, modular, cost-competitive wave-powered desalination systems. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) was tasked with managing the prize, known as the Waves to Water Prize (W2W), and providing technical input based on prior desalination research performed at the lab. NREL partnered with the Coastal Studies Institute (CSI) and Jennette's Pier in North Carolina for their expertise in deploying research articles at the Jennette's Pier research facility. The prize consisted of five stages that included high-level concept proposals, numerical modelling, site-specific design, subsystem prototyping, and a final ocean demonstration. Due to the logistical risks of installing numerous prototypes in the ocean at the same time, NREL was tasked with designing and building a test article to de-risk the final event. The test article design needed to represent the technologies expected in the final stage of the prize. This meant that the design was expected to follow the same rules as the competitors, providing CSI with an opportunity to practice installations and develop a final logistics plan prior to the final event. After concluding the W2W event in April 2022, the NREL test article was redeployed in August 2022 to better understand the challenges of anchoring wave energy converters (WECs) in shallow water conditions with breaking waves.
To de-risk the U.S. Department of Energy's Waves to Water Prize, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) developed a modular, wave powered desalination system. The prize was open to wave energy converter (WEC) designs that generate electricity or WECs that desalinate water mechanically. This added installation risks due to the variance in competitor devices, and the aggressive installation timeline. To reduce these risks NREL developed a wave energy converter (WEC) that the installation team could use to practice installation techniques prior to the competitors arriving to ensure all steps had been considered prior to the event. This was achieved by developing a WEC with a modular power-take-off (PTO). The modular PTO can be configured in one configuration to drive an electric generator that sends electricity to a pier. The electricity that is generated is converted, and stored, so that it can be used to power an electric pump that feeds water to a Reverse Osmosis (RO) desalination unit. In the other configuration the generator is replaced with a pump and seawater is pumped to the RO system on the pier without any electrons being generated. This WEC is formally known as the Hydraulic and Electric Reverse Osmosis (HERO) WEC. For the English version of this report, see NREL/CP-5700-86623 (https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy24osti/86623.pdf).
For many Alaskan communities, access to resilient, affordable, sustainable, and clean energy resources are top among the solutions they will need to help them navigate their changing landscape. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management funded the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to conduct a feasibility study to examine the potential for renewable energy technologies in Alaska offshore waters (with a focus on waters that are under BOEM's purview, the Outer Continental Shelf). With unprecedented investments from the federal government in bolstering resiliency in rural, remote and disadvantaged communities, renewable energy development in Alaska offshore waters could very well become a reality within the next two decades.
This study assesses the feasibility of ocean-based renewable energy sources for decarbonizing the energy supply, increasing coastal resilience, and building energy security and independence in Alaska with a focus on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) areas south of the Bering Strait and approximately east of the 169th meridian. Alaska's OCS holds vast renewable energy resource potential including, but not limited to, offshore wind, tidal and wave energy. However, most of this energy resource is "stranded" far from load centers (populations or industrial facilities) that could use the power. Therefore, developing these resources would also require monetizing the resource in some way. In this study we investigate hydrogen production as one monetizing opportunity, and we briefly discuss other possible markets for electricity.
The SeaRAY is a deployable power system for maritime sensors, monitoring equipment, communications, unmanned underwater vehicles, and other similar payloads. This project is to design, deliver, and test a prototype low-power WEC that lowers the total cost of ownership and provides robust, new capabilities for customers in the maritime environment. Failure Modes, Effects, and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) is conducted to systematically identify all potential failure modes and their effects on the system, and to analyze the criticality of each risk based on the likelihood of the event and the severity of the impact. Actions may then be recommended to mitigate the criticality of a risk, either by reducing the likelihood of the risk or the severity of its impact. Risk assessment is executed iteratively as an integral part of the design process. By incorporating risk assessment early in the development cycle, mitigation of risk can be achieved cost effectively. The actions recommended to mitigate risk may be subsequently executed, and as the design progresses the risk assessment is reviewed and revised. Review of the risk assessment is integrated into structured design reviews, ensuring that critical risks are comprehended and that the Project will not progress to e.g. fabrication while intolerable risks remain. The risk assessment process results in the population and maintenance of Risk Registers (RRs). Each major system (and as needed, subsystem) will have a distinct RR. This allows each system or subsystem to be assessed individually, rendering the RRs to a manageable size for review.
The mission of this project was to provide a preliminary feasibility assessment of powering different marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR), marine carbon capture, and marine carbon sequestration strategies with marine energy. In this report, carbon capture refers to methods that can separate or capture carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air or ocean; carbon sequestration refers to methods that store CO2 obtained by capture methods out of the atmosphere for long periods of time; and carbon dioxide removal (CDR) refers to methods that do both. The project found that mCDR powered by marine energy and offshore wind energy available in the United States could meet global CDR scales needed by 2040 and 2050 to limit warming to 1.5 degrees C by 2100. Note that this preliminary estimate assumes that it is possible to harvest all the marine and offshore wind resources available in the United States with existing technology options, and it does not account for the power needed for monitoring these methods, as these power needs are not yet well defined and require further research. Additionally, these CDR scales will still require emissions reductions.
revious studies reported that the electrical output of triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) materials is higher at low temperatures (below –20 °C) than at room temperature, indicating that a TENG device may be suitable in low-temperature environments such as the Arctic Ocean. However, research on TENG systems for extreme weather conditions (temperatures as low as) –40 °C is lacking. This paper presents the design of Arctic-TENG, which efficiently generates electricity to power a satellite communication system in Arctic Ocean conditions. Arctic-TENG was designed for low-temperature operations and performs better at cold temperatures than at room temperature. Using an out-of-water wave simulator at 0.2 Hz, the peak power density of Arctic-TENG reached 21.4 W/m3. Realistic energy requirements were obtained by implementing a satellite communication system, and the available energy from Arctic-TENG was measured and evaluated considering the available wave energy in the Arctic Ocean. The total energy generated per year from Arctic-TENG is 8.59 kJ. One Arctic-TENG can transmit 540 bytes of data per day over a year, which demonstrates the power supply capability of Arctic-TENG for long-term operation of a satellite communication system.
This paper presents considerations of the employment of ocean wave energy to support different energy demand side applications. The key aspect in these considerations is the wave energy supported achievable positive impact and associated tangible contribution in service of common societal good and of the natural commons. The level of impact that can be delivered is dependent on both, the level of contribution of the supported energy use application, and the compatibility and unique suitability of the wave energy resource and its characteristics with the needs of the application. Thus, a variety of ocean wave energy markets, the key value indicators or "currency' in which these markets trade the value delivered and the achievable positive impact, are reflected upon. Ocean wave energy supported acquisition of high quality ocean system data across a wide spectrum of system properties is identified as a highly impactful application enabling and/or improving a comprehensive range of impactful ocean system activities. The technology development process towards these markets and desired impacts requires relevant technology development progress guidance and metrics. Going beyond technology readiness levels and technology performance levels, the notion of further technology development progress scales towards high impact and high contribution are proposed. These scales and the associated technology properties can be regarded as additional technology development dimensions to span-up the technology development space in which desired system capability and functional requirement choices and subsequent ideation, innovation, research and technology development decisions can and are to be made.
Reflecting in the acceleration of the changes in ecological, climatological and generally planetary health, it is critical to employ those energy source as well and those energy used that are of the highest ratio of benefit to effort and deliver the most valuable and impactful, tangible contribution in service of natural commons and common societal good. Such considerations hold for all ocean energy types and especially for ocean wave energy. Thus, it is not only important to consider the resource that is converted into the standard form of usable energy, that is, in the form of electricity and to deliver to the most prominent marketplace, that is, the continental grid; it is equally important to consider the use, purpose and impact after converted energy. Reflecting on the entire value chain from marine renewable energy to a) usable energy to b) the actual use and purpose of the energy may lead to highly impactful implementations with more direct delivery of the renewable energy to the valued application. In such more direct paths from resource to impact the extracted energy and the applied energy is a mean to the purpose rather than a means to an end. Assessments of marine renewable energy markets other than powering the continental grid, such as Powering the Blue Economy, have been investigated and numerous research efforts are underway. However, to fully maximize the achievable impact of ocean wave energy it is critical to extend the consideration from replacing the energy source in existing applications to the enablement of highly impactful applications that are currently not existing or are not operated at the magnitude when powered by ocean waves. Highest effectiveness is achieved when the uniqueness of the renewable energy form matches the unique needs of the targeted application. For ocean wave energy the uniqueness lies in relative consistency, high degree of forecastability, energy density and the ubiquitous nature across the oceans. These provide a plethora of opportunities to serve markets and purposes that are directly in or based on the oceans. Technology development progress indicators such as Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) and Technology Performance Levels (TPL) are typically used to span up the technology development space and provide a framework and orientation for the desired technology development trajectories. Based on the description of the motivations above the paper and presentation with introduce and describe additional and alternative technology development indicators that directly point and guide the development towards impactful application and purpose as the desired technology development goal. In order to provide a clear understanding of impact markets and the associated values, thus, their specific currency these are best served in, three impact markets are presented in detail as concrete examples. These support planetary and ocean health in different ways through carbon capture, acceleration of the deployment of all forms of marine renewable energy types and enabling the implementation and enforcement of environmental legislation. Beyond these, a dozen of others impact markets are listed to provide an overview of impact oriented markets and applications.