An Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Energy's Marine and Hydrokinetic Resource Assessments

An Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Energy's Marine and Hydrokinetic Resource Assessments PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309269997
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
Increasing renewable energy development, both within the United States and abroad, has rekindled interest in the potential for marine and hydrokinetic (MHK) resources to contribute to electricity generation. These resources derive from ocean tides, waves, and currents; temperature gradients in the ocean; and free-flowing rivers and streams. One measure of the interest in the possible use of these resources for electricity generation is the increasing number of permits that have been filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). As of December 2012, FERC had issued 4 licenses and 84 preliminary permits, up from virtually zero a decade ago. However, most of these permits are for developments along the Mississippi River, and the actual benefit realized from all MHK resources is extremely small. The first U.S. commercial gridconnected project, a tidal project in Maine with a capacity of less than 1 megawatt (MW), is currently delivering a fraction of that power to the grid and is due to be fully installed in 2013. As part of its assessment of MHK resources, DOE asked the National Research Council (NRC) to provide detailed evaluations. In response, the NRC formed the Committee on Marine Hydrokinetic Energy Technology Assessment. As directed in its statement of task (SOT), the committee first developed an interim report, released in June 2011, which focused on the wave and tidal resource assessments (Appendix B). The current report contains the committee's evaluation of all five of the DOE resource categories as well as the committee's comments on the overall MHK resource assessment process. This summary focuses on the committee's overarching findings and conclusions regarding a conceptual framework for developing the resource assessments, the aggregation of results into a single number, and the consistency across and coordination between the individual resource assessments. Critiques of the individual resource assessment, further discussion of the practical MHK resource base, and overarching conclusions and recommendations are explained in An Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Energy's Marine and Hydrokinetic Resource Assessment.

An Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Energy's Marine and Hydrokinetic Resource Assessments

An Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Energy's Marine and Hydrokinetic Resource Assessments PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309269997
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
Increasing renewable energy development, both within the United States and abroad, has rekindled interest in the potential for marine and hydrokinetic (MHK) resources to contribute to electricity generation. These resources derive from ocean tides, waves, and currents; temperature gradients in the ocean; and free-flowing rivers and streams. One measure of the interest in the possible use of these resources for electricity generation is the increasing number of permits that have been filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). As of December 2012, FERC had issued 4 licenses and 84 preliminary permits, up from virtually zero a decade ago. However, most of these permits are for developments along the Mississippi River, and the actual benefit realized from all MHK resources is extremely small. The first U.S. commercial gridconnected project, a tidal project in Maine with a capacity of less than 1 megawatt (MW), is currently delivering a fraction of that power to the grid and is due to be fully installed in 2013. As part of its assessment of MHK resources, DOE asked the National Research Council (NRC) to provide detailed evaluations. In response, the NRC formed the Committee on Marine Hydrokinetic Energy Technology Assessment. As directed in its statement of task (SOT), the committee first developed an interim report, released in June 2011, which focused on the wave and tidal resource assessments (Appendix B). The current report contains the committee's evaluation of all five of the DOE resource categories as well as the committee's comments on the overall MHK resource assessment process. This summary focuses on the committee's overarching findings and conclusions regarding a conceptual framework for developing the resource assessments, the aggregation of results into a single number, and the consistency across and coordination between the individual resource assessments. Critiques of the individual resource assessment, further discussion of the practical MHK resource base, and overarching conclusions and recommendations are explained in An Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Energy's Marine and Hydrokinetic Resource Assessment.

Assessment of Marine and Hydrokinetic Energy Technology

Assessment of Marine and Hydrokinetic Energy Technology PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


Marine and Hydrokinetic Energy Technology

Marine and Hydrokinetic Energy Technology PDF Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Science and Technology (2007). Subcommittee on Energy and Environment
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 88

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Book Description


An Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Energy's Marine and Hydrokinetic Resource Assessments

An Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Energy's Marine and Hydrokinetic Resource Assessments PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309270049
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
Increasing renewable energy development, both within the United States and abroad, has rekindled interest in the potential for marine and hydrokinetic (MHK) resources to contribute to electricity generation. These resources derive from ocean tides, waves, and currents; temperature gradients in the ocean; and free-flowing rivers and streams. One measure of the interest in the possible use of these resources for electricity generation is the increasing number of permits that have been filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). As of December 2012, FERC had issued 4 licenses and 84 preliminary permits, up from virtually zero a decade ago. However, most of these permits are for developments along the Mississippi River, and the actual benefit realized from all MHK resources is extremely small. The first U.S. commercial gridconnected project, a tidal project in Maine with a capacity of less than 1 megawatt (MW), is currently delivering a fraction of that power to the grid and is due to be fully installed in 2013. As part of its assessment of MHK resources, DOE asked the National Research Council (NRC) to provide detailed evaluations. In response, the NRC formed the Committee on Marine Hydrokinetic Energy Technology Assessment. As directed in its statement of task (SOT), the committee first developed an interim report, released in June 2011, which focused on the wave and tidal resource assessments (Appendix B). The current report contains the committee's evaluation of all five of the DOE resource categories as well as the committee's comments on the overall MHK resource assessment process. This summary focuses on the committee's overarching findings and conclusions regarding a conceptual framework for developing the resource assessments, the aggregation of results into a single number, and the consistency across and coordination between the individual resource assessments. Critiques of the individual resource assessment, further discussion of the practical MHK resource base, and overarching conclusions and recommendations are explained in An Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Energy's Marine and Hydrokinetic Resource Assessment.

Concerns in Marine Renewable Energy Projects

Concerns in Marine Renewable Energy Projects PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
To accelerate the adoption of these emerging marine hydrokinetic technologies, navigational and environmental issues and concerns must be identified and addressed. As hydrokinetic projects move forward, various stakeholders will need to be engaged; one of the key issues that project proponents face as they engage stakeholders is that many conflicting uses and environmental issues are not well-understood. Much of this lack of understanding comes from a limited understanding of the technologies themselves. To address this issue, in September 2008, RE Vision consulting, LLC, was selected by the Department of Energy, under their market acceleration program, to apply a scenario-based assessment approach to the emerging hydrokinetic technology sector. The goal was to improve understanding of potential environmental and navigation impacts of these technologies and focus stakeholders on the critical issues. To meet this goal, the study established baseline scenarios for wave and tidal power conversion at potential future deployment sites. The scenarios captured variations in technical approaches and deployment scales and thus grounded the analysis in realistic constraints. The work conducted under this award provides an important foundation to other market acceleration activities carried out by the DoE and other stakeholders in this sector. The scenarios were then evaluated using a framework developed by H.T. Harvey & Associates to identify and characterize key environmental concerns and uncertainties. In collaboration with PCCI and the U.S. Coast Guard, navigation issues were assessed and guidelines developed to assure the safe operation of these systems. Finally, the work highlights?next steps? to take to continue development and adoption of marine hydrokinetic energy. Throughout the project, close collaboration with device developers, project developers and regulatory stakeholders was pursued to ensure that assumptions and constraints are realistic. Results concur with most of the permitting hurdles experienced by on-going projects in the U.S., and specific recommendations are provided for identifying and addressing them. While many areas of further research were identified, the study did not identify any major?show-stopper,? largely because these technologies have a relatively low environmental risk-profile if compared to other activities routinely permitted in the marine environment. The frameworks and representative scenarios developed provide an objective and transparent tool for stakeholders, regulators and developers to assist in the decision-making process for siting wave and tidal energy plants, and meet our goal of improving understanding between all stakeholders. The final product consists of three reports: Report 1 - Wave Energy Scenarios This report includes: - A technology characterization of four different wave energy technologies, including major technical specifications, device performance, and technical siting considerations - A site characterization of two potential deployment sites located in Hawaii and California - Outlines of device installation, O & M and decommissioning activities - Navigational demarcation requirements - Deployment Scenarios, identifying all the major life-cycle-related impacts Report 2 - Tidal Energy Scenarios This report includes: - A technology characterization of three tidal energy technologies, including major technical specifications, device performance, and technical siting considerations. - A site characterization of one potential deployment location in the Puget Sound, Washington - Outlines of device installation, O & M and decommissioning activities - Navigational demarcation requirements - Deployment Scenarios, identifying all the major life-cycle-related impacts Report 3 - Framework for Identifying Key Environmental Concerns This report describes frameworks for identifying key environmental effects and applies them to the wave and tidal energy deployment scenarios described in t ...

Protocols for the Equitable Assessment of Marine Energy Converters

Protocols for the Equitable Assessment of Marine Energy Converters PDF Author:
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 0950892025
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
This book contains the suite of protocols for the equitable evaluation of marine energy converters (based on either tidal or wave energy) produced by the EquiMar consortium led by the University of Edinburgh. These protocols aim to harmonise testing and evaluation procedures across the wide variety of devices presently available with the aim of accelerating adoption though technology matching and improved understanding of the environmental and economic impacts associated with the deployment of arrays of devices. EquiMar will assess devices through a suite of protocols covering site selection, device engineering design, the scaling up of designs, the deployment of arrays of devices, the environmental impact, in terms of both biological & coastal processes, and economic issues. The series of protocols has been developed through a robust, auditable process and we hope they will provide a firm foundation for project developers, consenting agencies, project funders and technology developers to evaluate concepts.

Quadrennial Technology Review 2015

Quadrennial Technology Review 2015 PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 23

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Book Description
Marine and hydrokinetic (MHK) technologies convert the energy of waves, tides, and river and ocean currents into electricity. With more than 50% of the U.S. population living within 50 miles of the nation's coasts, MHK technologies hold significant potential to supply renewable electricity to consumers in coastal load centers, particularly in the near term in areas with high costs of electricity and longer term in high resource areas in close proximity to major coastal load centers. MHK resource assessments identify a total U.S. technical resource potential of approximately 1250-1850 terawatt-hours (TWh) of generation per year from ocean wave, ocean current, ocean tidal, and river current energy. Of this, the U.S. continental technical resource potential is approximately 500-750 TWh/year. For context, roughly 90,000 homes can be powered by 1 TWh of electricity generation each year. A cost-effective MHK industry could provide a substantial amount of electricity for the nation owing in large part to its unique advantages as a source of energy, including its vast resource potential, its close proximity to major coastal load centers, and its long-term predictability and near-term forecastability.

Marine Hydrokinetic Energy Site Identification and Ranking Methodology Part I

Marine Hydrokinetic Energy Site Identification and Ranking Methodology Part I PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 38

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Book Description
Marine hydrokinetic energy is a promising and growing piece of the renewable energy sector that offers high predictability and additional energy sources for a diversified energy economy. This report investigates the market opportunities for wave energy along the U.S. coastlines. It is part one of a two-part investigation into the United State's two largest marine hydrokinetic resources (wave and tidal). Wave energy technology is still an emerging form of renewable energy for which large-scale, grid-connected project costs are currently poorly defined. Ideally, device designers would like to know the resource conditions at economical project sites so they can optimize device designs. On the other hand, project developers need detailed device cost data to identify sites where projects are economical. That is, device design and siting are, to some extent, a coupled problem. This work describes a methodology for identifying likely deployment locations based on a set of criteria that wave energy experts in industry, academia, and national laboratories agree are likely to be important factors for all technology types. This work groups the data for the six criteria into 'locales' that are defined as the smaller of either the local transmission grid or a state boundary. The former applies to U.S. islands (e.g., Hawaii, American Samoa) and rural villages (e.g., in Alaska); the latter applies to states in the contiguous United States. These data are then scored from 0 to 10 according to scoring functions that were developed with input from wave energy industry and academic experts. The scores are aggregated using a simple product method that includes a weighting factor for each criterion. This work presents two weighting scenarios: a long-term scenario that does not include energy price (weighted zero) and a near term scenario that includes energy price. The aggregated scores are then used to produce ranked lists of likely deployment locales. In both scenarios, Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest (northern California, Oregon, and Washington) rank at the top of the lists. Hawaii ranks highest in the near-term scenario because it has high energy costs. In the long-term scenario, Oregon ranks highest because it has a large market and an energetic resource. Several East Coast states and Puerto Rico are also identified as potential wave energy deployment sites if technological innovations make it possible to efficiently generate electricity from the modest resource there. There are also several small-market sites in Alaska and U.S. Pacific Islands that rank particularly well in the near-term analysis due to their high energy prices. These locations may represent opportunities to demonstrate economical wave energy conversion as a stepping-stone to larger markets. Several factors that will affect wave project costs and siting have not been considered here -- including permitting constraints, conflicting use, seasonal resource variability, extreme event likelihood, and distance to ports -- because consistent data are unavailable or technology-independent scoring could not be identified. As the industry continues to mature and converge around a subset of device archetypes with well-defined costs, more precise investigations of project siting that include these factors will be possible. For now, these results provide a high-level guide pointing to the regions where markets and resource will one day support commercial wave energy projects.

Marine and Hydrokinetic Energy Technology

Marine and Hydrokinetic Energy Technology PDF Author: United States Congress
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781978263307
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 88

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Book Description
Marine and hydrokinetic energy technology: finding the path to commercialization : hearing before the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, Committee on Science and Technology, House of Representatives, One Hundred Eleventh Congress, first session, December 3, 2009.

Marine and Hydrokinetic Energy Technology

Marine and Hydrokinetic Energy Technology PDF Author: United States House of Representatives
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781693876547
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 88

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Book Description
Marine and hydrokinetic energy technology: finding the path to commercialization: hearing before the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, Committee on Science and Technology, House of Representatives, One Hundred Eleventh Congress, first session, December 3, 2009.