Ocean and Wave Power
Adam Henry Wesley
Chicago Kent College of Law
awesley@kentlaw.edu
ahwesley@comcast.net
May, 2007
Ocean and Wave Power
• Why Ocean and Wave Power?
• Technological Feasibility
• Cost competitiveness (measured against
fossil fuels)
Advantages of Offshore Ocean
Wave Power
• Clean renewable source of energy
• Nearly unlimited
• More Predictable than wind and sun
• Little environmental impact
• Not visible from shore
• Proximity to markets needing electricity
World Coastal Population
• 50% of the world's population currently
live within sixty kilometers of the coast
• By 2008, the world population will exceed
6.7 billion people
• 3.4 billion living on coast
Potential World-Wide Wave
Energy
• IEA (International Energy Agency)
estimates that wave energy can supply
between 10 and 50% of world demand
• World demand of 15,000 TWh
World Energy Council Estimates
• 2 terawatts of clean and accessible ocean
energy
• Equivalent to twice the world’s current
electricity generation
World Energy Council 2001
Survey estimates
• 2 TW of exploitable wave power
worldwide
• 50% of the total European power
consumption could be generated from
European coastal waters
Independent market assessment of
wave energy economic contribution to
electricity market
• Estimated 2,000 TWh/year
• 10% of world electricity consumption
• Equal to current world-wide large scale
hydroelectric projects
U.S. Coastal Population Trends
• 17% of U.S. land is home to more than
half of the nation's population.
• 53 % of U.S population, (153 million
people) lived on the U.S. coast. In 2003
• A 28% increase (33 million people) since
1980.
U.S. Coastal Population Trends
• in 2003, 23 of the 25 most densely
populated counties were coastal
• By the year 2008, coastal county
population is expected to increase by
approximately 7 million
U.S Coastal Estimates
• 2,300 Terawatt-hours per year or;
• $80.5 billion annually
California Energy Commission
Estimates
• California’s 1,100-mile coastline could generate:
– seven to 17 megawatts a mile,
– enough power per mile to serve 13,000 homes
• Several hundred square miles off the California
coast could supply all the homes in the state.
Technological Maturity
• Systems past proof of concept, deployed,
and grid connected
– AquaBuOY
– Archimedes Wave Swing
– Pelamis
– Wave Dragon
Proving Grounds
• European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in
Orkney
• Established to commercialize marine energy
• National Grid Connection
– Wave and tidal energy converters are connected via
seabed cables running from open-water test berths
Based at Stromness in Orkney
AquaBuOY
Finavera Renewables CEO
outlines ‘huge potential’ of
ocean wave energy in
address to United States
Congressional Committee
“My message to you today is simple: Ocean renewable energy’s time
has come. This is not pie in the sky. We have three wave energy
projects under development in California, Oregon, and Washington,
and we are in discussions about others. These are not just paper
projects. We are literally weeks away from issuing contracts that will
put US steelworkers to work constructing our prototype wave energy
buoy, which we are going to install off the coast of Newport, Oregon
this summer.”
Finavera Renewables AquaBuOY
• 1MW pilot plant in Makah Bay, Washington
State, USA
• 100MW staged power project in Portugal
• 20MW staged project in South Africa
• Pilot project in BC, Canada
U.S. Projects
• Finavera Renewables Makah Bay, Washington
State
• 1 MW demonstration plant.
• 1500 MWh/year expected generation
• Powering 150 homes a year
Archimedes Wave Swing or “AWS”
AWS Ocean Energy
Device Specifications
• Each AWS:
– 800 ton 39 x 98 foot cylinder
– tethered to the seabed by cables 20 feet
below the surface of the sea
How it works
• The AWS wave energy converter is a
cylinder shaped buoy
• Moored to the seabed
• Passing waves move an air-filled upper
casing against a lower fixed cylinder
• The up and down movement converted
into electricity
wave power station
Utility Scale Power Generation?
• Continuous average output of up to 1MW in a
rough sea (Northern Atlantic)
• Power output similar to one large wind turbine
• A 50MW farm will occupy 3 nautical miles long
by 2 cables wide.
• Enough electricity for 25,000 homes.
Utility Level Power
• Each AWS unit is currently rated at 1.2
Megawatts
• Power approximately 2,000 households
• 50 AWS units would produce utility scale
power in a small footprint
• 1/3 the area required by current wind and
solar
Utility Scale Power
• AWS plans to create a 100-machine wave
park at a cost of £250 million
• Power production should exceed 100 MW
How long before utility scale
deployment?
• First AWS machine will be installed in
Orkney in 2007
• First mini wave farm of Scottish waters by
2010
• Expanding within 12 months to 20 units
Requirements for a wave farm
• Exposure to ocean swells,
• Water depth of 80-90m
• Near commercial shipping lanes
• Industrial port within 12 sailing hours
• Sea-bed where power cables can be laid
to shore
Advantages
• Not visible (sub surface)
• Durability (one moving part)
• No or minimal environmental damage
• Scalability (limited only by suitable
conditions)
Advantages
• Units can be installed in close proximity land to
reduce:
– the cost of installation,
– maintenance and
– power loss in the underwater cable to grid
Pelamis Wave Generator Power System
(Ocean Power Delivery)
Ocean Power Delivery (Pelamis)
• Pelamis has a similar output to a modern wind
•
•
•
•
turbine
Full-scale prototype is operational
Tested at the European Marine Energy Centre in
Orkney.
A typical 30MW installation would occupy a
square kilometer of ocean and provide sufficient
electricity for 20,000 homes
Twenty farms could power a city such as
Edinburgh
Large Pelamis Projects
• World's biggest commercial wave project
(Coast of Scotland)
• Four Pelamis machines
• Deployment next 12 months.
Utility Scale Power?
• The Orkney wave farm will generate three
megawatts of electricity
• Will power about 3,000 homes
Pelamis Offshore Wave Energy in
Portugal
• 28 wave power devices will be installed in
Portugal within a year
• Generating 22.5 megawatts of electricity
• The project is supported by state run
power company Energias de Portugal.
Competitive Price Requirements
(wave power level of 15 kw per meter)
Ocean Power Technologies
PowerBuoy® systems
How it works
• The PowerBuoy is based on modular,
ocean-going buoys
• The PowerBuoy™ is mounted on the sea
bottom using anchoring system
• Ocean tested for nearly a decade.
Completed Testing
• PowerBuoy™ in operation in Hawaii
• PowerBuoy™ off the coast of New Jersey
U.S. Deployment
Wave Park Douglas County Reedsport, Oregon
– As part of the initial program, OPT expects to install
its ocean-tested PowerBuoy® systems initially
generating a total of 2 MW
– 2.5 miles off the coast at a depth of 50 meters
– Preliminary permit by the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (FERC) for up to 50 MW system
Utility Scale Deployment
• Petitioning the state of New Jersey for
permission to install a 100 MW
PowerBuoy™ plant off the coast of Atlantic
City, New Jersey
Ocean Wave Generating Costs
• The total operating cost of generating
power from an OPT wave power station
including maintenance and operating
expenses, as well as the amortized capital
cost of the equipment:
• projected (US) 3-4¢/ kWh for 100MW
• (US) 7-10¢/kWh for 1MW plants,.
Funding
• Large government backed utility scale projects
coming online
• Portugal
• Scotland
• UK
Wave Dragon
Operating Principle
Wave Dragon
• Floating, slack-moored energy converter of
the overtopping type
• Deployed in a single unit or in arrays
• Power plant capacity comparable to
traditional fossil based power plants.
Utility Level Power
• 4 MW when deployed in a relatively lowenergy (24 kW/m) wave climate
• 7 MW when deployed in a 36 kW/m
climate
Advantages
• Combines existing, mature offshore and
hydro turbine technology in a novel way
• Freely up-scaled
• Maintenance can be carried out at sea
leading to low O&M cost relatively to other
concepts
• Most tested offshore Wave Energy
Converter (WEC) technology in the world
Deployment
• The prototype activities has established
the necessary knowledge to deploy a fullscale Wave Dragon in 2007
Large Scale Deployments
• 50 MW wave farm Portugal
• Awarded a major R&D contract with the
European Commission (Multi-MW Unit)
Economic Viability
• Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)
suggests that generation of electricity
from wave energy may be economically
feasible in the near future
• In 2006 the Carbon Trust issued a report
that identified that marine energy could
provide a fifth of the UK’s current
electricity needs and be cost-competitive
with conventional generation
• The cost of wind energy have fallen by
~80% over the past two decades
• Opening costs for wave power:
– half wind energy’s opening costs
– a quarter the current cost of solar
Government Backing
• Several countries have either installed or
are about to install full-scale prototypes
• Funds in excess of 70 million euros have
been committed to these installations
Government Projections
• The Scottish Executive's Forum for Renewable Energy
Development in Scotland (FREDS) Marine Energy Group
report:
• potential for 7000 jobs in marine energy by 2020,
• 10% of Scotland's electricity being supplied by marine energy
• supplying more than 100MW per annum to export markets
• (see:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Business
Industry/infrastructure/19185/20368).
Compelling arguments for investing in offshore
wave energy technology.
• Environmentally benign ways to generate
•
electricity
Little or no (NIMBY) issues that plague many
energy infrastructure projects
– Wave energy devices are generally not visible from
shore
• Wave energy is more predictable than solar and
•
wind energy
High power density
– (Solar and wind energy is concentrated into ocean
waves)
– easier and cheaper to harvest
Risks and Drawbacks
• While wave energy is renewable and nonpolluting, it does raise
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environmental and safety issues. These include:
1. disturbance or destruction of marine life, including changes in the
distribution and types of marine life near the shore;
2. possible threat to navigation from collisions due to the low profile
of the wave energy devices above the water, making them
undetectable either by direct sighting or by radar;
3. interference with mooring and anchorage lines with commercial
and sport-fishing; and
4. degradation of ocean front views by wave energy devices located
near or on the shore, and from onshore overhead electric
transmission lines.