Final Report Feasibility Study for the California Wave Energy Test Center (CalWavesm)
- California Polytechnic State Univ. (CalPoly), San Luis Obispo, CA (United States). Inst. for Advanced Technology and Public Policy
- Protean Wave Energy Ltd., Los Osos, CA (United States)
- Leidos Maritime Solutions, Reston, VA (United States)
- CH2M, Sacramento, CA (United States)
- Kearns and West, Inc., San Francisco, CA (United States)
- Omega Power Engineers, LLC, Anaheim, CA (United States)
- California Polytechnic State Univ. (CalPoly), San Luis Obispo, CA (United States)
- Electric Power Research Inst. (EPRI), Knoxville, TN (United States)
- Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ. (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA (United States)
- California Natural Resources Agency, Sacramento, CA (United States)
- Pacific Gas and Electric Company, San Francisco, CA (United States)
- Humboldt State Univ., Arcata, CA (United States)
- Power Delivery Consultants, Inc., Albany, NY (United States)
The California Wave Energy Test Center (CalWave) Feasibility Study project was funded over multiple phases by the Department of Energy to perform an interdisciplinary feasibility assessment to analyze the engineering, permitting, and stakeholder requirements to establish an open water, fully energetic, grid connected, wave energy test center off the coast of California for the purposes of advancing U.S. wave energy research, development, and testing capabilities. Work under this grant included wave energy resource characterization, grid impact and interconnection requirements, port infrastructure and maritime industry capability/suitability to accommodate the industry at research, demonstration and commercial scale, and macro and micro siting considerations. CalWave Phase I performed a macro-siting and down-selection process focusing on two potential test sites in California: Humboldt Bay and Vandenberg Air Force Base. This work resulted in the Vandenberg Air Force Base site being chosen as the most favorable site based on a peer reviewed criteria matrix. CalWave Phase II focused on four siting location alternatives along the Vandenberg Air Force Base coastline and culminated with a final siting down-selection. Key outcomes from this work include completion of preliminary engineering and systems integration work, a robust turnkey cost estimate, shoreside and subsea hazards assessment, storm wave analysis, lessons learned reports from several maritime disciplines, test center benchmarking as compared to existing international test sites, analysis of existing applicable environmental literature, the completion of a preliminary regulatory, permitting and licensing roadmap, robust interaction and engagement with state and federal regulatory agency personnel and local stakeholders, and the population of a Draft Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Preliminary Application Document (PAD). Analysis of existing offshore oil and gas infrastructure was also performed to assess the potential value and re-use scenarios of offshore platform infrastructure and associated subsea power cables and shoreside substations. The CalWave project team was well balanced and was comprised of experts from industry, academia, state and federal regulatory agencies. The result of the CalWave feasibility study finds that the CalWave Test Center has the potential to provide the most viable path to commercialization for wave energy in the United States.
- Research Organization:
- Cal Poly Corporation, San Luis Obispo, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Wind and Water Technologies Office (EE-4W)
- DOE Contract Number:
- EE0006517
- OSTI ID:
- 1406134
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-CP-0006517
- Resource Relation:
- Related Information: Williams, R.B; Davy, D.M.; West, A.L.; Thomson, J.L.; Connett, R.M.; Toman, W.I.; Blakeslee, S.N.; 2017, Final Report of the Feasibility Study for the California Wave Energy Test Center (CalWaveSM). DOE Contract DE-EE0006517. Cal Poly Corporation, Institute for Advanced Technology and Public Policy, California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, California, July 2017
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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