Productivity and economic assessment of wave energy projects through operational simulations

Abstract

a b s t r a c tIn this work, we present a methodology for the assessment of the economic value of ocean wave energy schemes. Such an assessment is a necessary tool for supporting investment decisions in the development of wave farms and in the development of wave energy converter (WEC) technology. To overcome the lack of operational experience, the methodology presented includes detailed operational simulations which relate the operational costs and the availability of the plant for power production to the characteristics of the device, the location, and the maintenance strategy chosen. The methodology consists of firstly, a productivity and costs assessment which embodies the operational simulations and secondly, a financial calculator which employs discounted cash-flow techniques to produce selected economic indicators. A case study, consisting of one hundred WECs units deployed off the West Coast of Ireland, is presented to exemplify the use of the methodology. The paper also explores how the key inputs to the assessment affect the economic performance of the case study project via a sensitivity analysis.

Life Cycle Assessment of the Wavestar

“…Previously, there have been many economic studies undertaken to assess the purely economic aspect of renewable technologies [2][3][4][5][6][7], however these reports only account for device technologies form the installation stage onward and not overall life cycle.…”

Wave-to-wire Modelling of Wave Energy Converters

“…This is clear in the case of the P controller where the amount of damping is positively correlated to the structural load, and only the reduced damping coefficient (0.8c c ) can be considered. Figure 13 shows the variations of CF with respect to the p-parameter obtained from Equation (18). When the cost is assumed to be independent from the control strategy, i.e., p = 0%, then CF is greater than one.…”

“…Since the global aim of the sector is the commercialisation of WECs, the economic quota needs to be considered too. For offshore structure, due to the high ratio between extreme and operational loads, the structural cost is expected to lie in the range 30%-50% of the capital cost [18,19]. This entails that the economic quota can be related to the structural dimension in the first approximation.…”

Advances and Challenges in Wave Energy Park Optimization—A Review

“…Despite these challenges, some authors have attempted to include economic parameters in their optimization algorithms. Teillant et al (2012) modeled a wave farm of 100 units at the AMETS test site on the west coast of Ireland, and an economic assessment based on production, location, and maintenance strategies was presented. Rinaldi et al (2016b) presented a computational tool focused on maintenance operations that computes key performance indicators such as annual electricity generation and total gross revenue, with inputs such as the failure rates, wave climate, and power matrix of the device.…”