Cost Assessment Methodology and Economic Viability of Tidal Energy Projects

Segura, Eva; Morales, Rafael; Somolinos, J.A.

doi:10.3390/en10111806

Cited by 39 publications

(42 citation statements)

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“…19,20 The starting point (1), denoted as a circle in Figure 10, represents the original TEC based on these papers. This section studies a Tidal Energy Converter (TEC) based on the Reference Model 1 (RM1) of the Sandia National Labs Report and some complementary studies.…”

Section: Tidal Energy Converter (Tec)mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Metric Space with LCOE Isolines for Research Guidance in wind and hydrokinetic energy systems

García-Sanz

2019

Wind Energy

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This paper introduces a new Metric Space to guide the design of advanced wind energy systems and hydrokinetic energy converters such as tidal, ocean current and riverine turbines. The Metric Space can analyse farms that combine different or identical turbines and stand-alone turbines. The first metric (M1) of the space considers the efficiency of the turbines in the farm, which is also proportional to the specific power per swept area at a given wind/water velocity (W/m 2 ). The second metric (M2) describes the specific rotor area per unit of mass of the turbines (m 2 /kg). Both metrics depend on the primary design characteristics of the turbines, such as swept area, system size and mass, materials and efficiency, and are independent at first from external characteristics, such as atmospheric and ocean site conditions, cost of materials and economic factors. Combining both metrics, and for a given set of external characteristics, the resulting Metric Space M2/M1 displays the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) standards as isolines. This graphical representation provides a quick understanding of the cost and state of the technology. It also offers a practical guidance to choose the research tasks and strategy to design advanced wind and hydrokinetic energy systems. The paper applies the new Metric Space to several case studies, including large and small onshore wind turbines, floating and bottom-fixed offshore wind turbines, downwind rotors, multi-rotor and hybrid systems, airborne wind energy systems, wind farms and tidal energy converters. KEYWORDS hydrokinetic energy systems, Levelized cost of energy, performance metrics, research strategy, tidal energy systems, wind energy systems, wind farms, wind turbines | INTRODUCTIONMetrics play a critical role in research and technical innovation. Optimal and practical metrics are often not easy to find. When found, they certainly help to quantify the performance of the technology and to discover new ways to improve design and operation.Over the last few decades, the Levelized Cost of Energy, or LCOE, is been used to characterize the technical capabilities and economic opportunities of wind and water energy systems. The LCOE has shown to be particularly useful for selecting the site between different options for a given wind or water turbine technology, and for comparing different technologies at the same point in time, avoiding the dependence of economic factors on the temporal variability. Every year, international agencies and centers publish detailed reports of the LCOE achieved by wind and water energy systems over different regions and countries in the World. As described in these annual reports, the LCOE for onshore wind energy systems has been constantly reduced, from over $0.60/kWh in the early 80s to $0.03-0.05/kWh at the end of 2018.

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Section: Tidal Energy Converter (Tec)mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Metric Space with LCOE Isolines for Research Guidance in wind and hydrokinetic energy systems

García-Sanz

2019

Wind Energy

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“…This will allow those involved to decide whether or not the project is financially viable. The proposed model, which is shown in Figure 11, has the following stages [19,46]: (i) the LCC of the project is studied and the annual sales estimated; (ii) the financing structure of the model is determined; (iii) the forecast income statement, forecast balance and forecast sources and application of funds for the lifespan of the project are defined; (iv) the cost-benefit analysis is obtained, which is done by utilizing the forecast cash-flows of the project, along with the forecast sources and application funds; (v) the most important financial rations of the model are studied, and (vi) a sensitivity analysis is carried out in order to detect possible business risks. The following subsections deal briefly with this.…”

Section: Economic-financial Feasibility Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is principally owing to the fact that it typically costs more to generate energy from tidal currents than it does when using other renewable technologies [16]. It is consequently vital to understand the parameters that may affect the cost structure in order to provide a framework containing areas in which these costs can be reduced [17].A detailed analysis of the life cycle costs (LCC) for first generation tidal energy farms (TEFs) shows that the installation and maintenance procedures are of the utmost importance and must be optimized in order to increase their current potential, help their acceleration and sustainability and help attract investment in these technologies [18,19]. These procedures include the transportation of each of the TECs from the base port to its installation site, the preparation of the seabed, the placement and installation of anchor systems and/or the deployment of a mooring system, and the positioning, connection and disconnection of the main units of the devices [20,21].…”

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confidence: 99%

“…A detailed analysis of the life cycle costs (LCC) for first generation tidal energy farms (TEFs) shows that the installation and maintenance procedures are of the utmost importance and must be optimized in order to increase their current potential, help their acceleration and sustainability and help attract investment in these technologies [18,19]. These procedures include the transportation of each of the TECs from the base port to its installation site, the preparation of the seabed, the placement and installation of anchor systems and/or the deployment of a mooring system, and the positioning, connection and disconnection of the main units of the devices [20,21].…”

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Increasing the Competitiveness of Tidal Systems by Means of the Improvement of Installation and Maintenance Maneuvers in First Generation Tidal Energy Converters—An Economic Argumentation

2019

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The most important technological advances in tidal systems are currently taking place in first generation tidal energy converters (TECs), which are installed in areas in which the depth does not exceed 40 m. Some of these devices are fixed to the seabed and it is, therefore, necessary to have special high performance ships to transport them from the base port to the tidal farm and to subsequently recover the main units of these devices. These ships are very costly, thus making the installation costs very high and, in some cases, probably unfeasible. According to what has occurred to date, the costs of the installation and maintenance procedures depend, to a great extent, on the reliability and accessibility of the devices. One of the possible solutions as regards increasing system performance and decreasing the costs of the installation and maintenance procedures is the definition of automated maneuvers, which will consequently influence: (i) an increase in the competitiveness of these technologies; (ii) a reduction in the number and duration of installation and maintenance operations; (iii) less human intervention, or (iv) the possibility of using cheaper general purpose ships rather than high cost special vessels for maintenance purposes, among others. In this research, we propose a definition of the procedures required for the manual and automated installation and maintenance maneuvers of gravity-based first generation TECs. This definition will allow us to quantify the costs of both the manual and automated operations in a more accurate manner and enable us to determine the reduction in the cost of the automated installation and maintenance procedures. It will also enable us to demonstrate that the automation of these maneuvers may be an interesting solution by which to improve the competitiveness of tidal systems in the near future.

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“…Tidal energy research contributes to overcome a number of challenges to prove the reliability of this technology and to provide developers key information to optimize device design and to select the locations where the turbines will be deployed in order to improve power extraction. For example, [2] and [3] study, respectively, the influence of wake effect on the electrical dynamics of tidal farms, the cost assessment, and the economic viability of tidal farm development in the Raz Blanchard.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of the Current Direction on the Energy Production of a Tidal Farm: The Case of Raz Blanchard (France)

et al. 2019

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This study aims to investigate the influence of the current direction on the energy production of a tidal turbines array. It is based on a three-dimensional (3D) numerical simulation of the flow where the turbines are represented with actuator disks. The case study consists of modelling the energy extraction of a small array of turbines (staggered and aligned layouts) placed in the Raz Blanchard (Alderney Race, France). The simulations are performed with hydrodynamic data (current magnitude and direction) representative of a mean tide, with several resistance forces and ambient turbulence intensities. The influence of the current direction on the energy production is highlighted by comparing the simulations forced with the real current direction with those in which the angle of incidence between the incoming flow and the turbine's axis is "switched off" (bi-directional flow). When the flow is aligned with the turbines' axis (misalignment "switched off"), the staggered layout produces more than the aligned arrangement. Comparison of the two types of simulations (misalignment switched off or not) shows that the misalignment of the flow around a predominant direction reduces the energy produced by the staggered layout and increases the production of the aligned layout. Furthermore, it suggests that the mean energy produced per machine is almost the same for both layouts. Higher turbulence intensity reduces the positive effect of the directional spreading on the aligned layout production and limits the negative effect on the staggered layout production.The hydrodynamics of tidal energy sites is intricate and often shows an asymmetry in tidal current direction. As an example, the current of the Raz Blanchard, which is located between the Alderney Island and La Hague Cape (Normandy, France), is quasi bidirectional in the Southern part of the Race but is characterized by a high directional spreading in the Northern part. At some locations, the current incidence with respect to the predominant direction reaches up to 30 • [4]. Thus, the multi-directionality of the flow should be considered when optimizing the turbines' arrangement.Numerous numerical modelling studies investigated the effect of the current asymmetry (amplitude and direction) on the production of tidal farms. However, previous studies were essentially performed with regional models where the turbines' thrust was spatially averaged over the area occupied by the tidal farm. This (spatially averaged) turbine representation implies that the interactions between the turbines' wakes are negated [5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. Such regional approach has been used at sites located in West Brittany such as the Sein Race [7] and the Fromveur strait [8], at Scottish sites such as the Orkney archipelago [9], at the Ramsey Sound strait [10], and at the Normand site of the Raz Blanchard [1].Recent works [11][12][13][14] deal with the implementation of methods developed (based on numerical results or experimental mapping) to optimize the identification of suitable sites for ene...

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Cost Assessment Methodology and Economic Viability of Tidal Energy Projects

Cited by 39 publications

References 38 publications

A Metric Space with LCOE Isolines for Research Guidance in wind and hydrokinetic energy systems

A Metric Space with LCOE Isolines for Research Guidance in wind and hydrokinetic energy systems

Increasing the Competitiveness of Tidal Systems by Means of the Improvement of Installation and Maintenance Maneuvers in First Generation Tidal Energy Converters—An Economic Argumentation

Effects of the Current Direction on the Energy Production of a Tidal Farm: The Case of Raz Blanchard (France)

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