Page 284 - Fundamentals of Ocean Renewable Energy Generating Electricity From The Sea

Chapter 10

Other Aspects of Ocean

Renewable Energy

In this book, we have introduced and discussed many aspects of ocean renewable
energy relating to tidal, wind, and wave energy resource characterization,
including modelling, observation, and optimization. In this chapter, we intro-
duce more contemporary aspects of ocean renewable energy—state-of-the-art
research topics, and issues that are not yet fully resolved. These include the
variability of multiple ocean renewable energy resources (and how these relate
to other forms of renewable energy), and how the resource is likely to vary
in the future due to global warming. We also discuss uncertainty in resource
characterization (e.g. due to feedbacks between energy extraction and the
resource) and wave-tide interaction. After a consideration of the development of
an ocean renewable energy project from site selection and device design through
to grid connection and commissioning, we finally discuss how tidal energy
conversion influences sediment dynamics—a process, via morphodynamics,
that can influence the resource itself.

10.1 RESOURCE VARIABILITY
We have seen in Chapters 3–5 that there is considerable spatial and temporal
variability in all ocean renewable energy resources. For example, the tidal
range resource is amplified in regions that are in resonance (i.e. standing
wave systems), and tidal currents are much stronger within the confines of
narrow straits and around rocky headlands. Further, tides in most regions of
the world are either diurnal or semidiurnal, with the latter being characterized
by the fortnightly spring-neap cycle. By contrast, the wave resource tends
to be characterized by seasonal cycles (although with significant interannual
variability) and is greatest in those regions that are exposed to long fetches,
for example, the west coast of Ireland and Scotland (exposed to the North
Atlantic), and the west coast of the United States. Similarly, the wind resource is
greatest in exposed regions and again exhibits strong interannual and intraannual
variabilities. Therefore, for any future energy mix that includes significant levels
of generation from multiple ocean renewable energy resources, it is important to
consider temporal variability between resources, from both supply and demand

Fundamentals of Ocean Renewable Energy. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-810448-4.00010-0
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