Page 308 - Fundamentals of Ocean Renewable Energy Generating Electricity From The Sea

Other Aspects of Ocean Renewable Energy Chapter | 10 293

FIG. 10.11 Conceptual comparison between constant transmission coefficient applied across all
frequencies (Obcase 2) and applying unique values at each binned frequency (Obcase 4). (Data from
K. Ruehl, A. Porter, C. Chartrand, H. Smith, G. Chang, J. Roberts, Development, verification and
application of the SNL-SWAN open source wave farm code, in: The 11th European Wave and Tidal
Energy Conference: EWTEC 2015, 2015.)

the ocean is a vast and untapped resource of renewable energy, and with
sufficient investment in R&D, it can potentially become a major competitive
industry in the future.
Development of a marine renewable energy project is a complicated and
iterative process, involving significant risks and unknowns. Several models of
project development have been proposed in the literature (e.g. see Refs [48,49]
for further details). Development of a marine renewable energy project usually
consists of the following elements: site, market, permits, technology, project
team, and capital.
A suitable site is usually chosen/leased by marine spatial planning with the
objective of finding the best technical location (maximum energy, minimum
construction difficulty, closest to the consumer, minimum cost), with minimum
conflicts amongst other users of the ocean, and considering regulations. The
energy project at the site should also have minimum environmental impacts.
An important step of siting is resource characterization—a topic that has been
covered extensively in previous chapters of this book.
Another essential element of any project is the market: the user of the
generated electricity should be identified. The buyer of energy should be secured
by contracts such as power purchase agreements. Depending on the type of site
(grid-connected or off-grid), other costs such as cabling, transmission, and some
infrastructure may need to be added to the total cost.