Ocean Renewable Energy and the Energy Transition
Ocean renewable energy, which includes tidal energy, wave energy, ocean thermal energy conversion and salinity gradient, offers huge potential to contribute to the Energy Transition. With the vast water resources available to many countries, ocean renewable energy is deemed a natural power source especially for coastal communities.
Given the huge potential of ocean renewable energy technology to contribute to a more sustainable future, we invited Dr Mary Ann Q. Franco, a Research Fellow at the Energy Studies Institute, for an interview.
The full version of this blog was first posted TechnologyCatalogue.com. Access it here.
energy technology development in Southeast Asia, and science, technology and society (STS) studies.
1. Give us a brief background on ocean renewable energy and how it is different from marine energy. How huge is the potential of ocean renewable energy in accelerating energy transition?
First, let’s define what ocean renewable energy is. Ocean renewable energy is often used interchangeably with marine renewable energy. Ocean renewable energy refers to drawing of power from the ocean to generate electricity, which has different types that include tidal barrage, tidal in-stream, wave energy, salinity gradient and ocean thermal energy. Marine energy, on the other hand, is a general term that refers to anything in the marine space that generates renewable energy. That being said, ocean renewable energy is marine energy, together with other marine energy types such as offshore wind, floating PV solar, hybrid energy like a combination of offshore wind and floating PV.
So, how huge is the potential of ocean renewable energy in contributing to the energy transition? Looking at Southeast Asia alone, the potential of ocean renewable energy is around 1 TW which is mostly from tidal in-stream — a number based on our discussions with experts in the region. (To put this into perspective, 1TW is equivalent to the total capacity of solar panels installed worldwide as of this month.)
The huge selling point for ocean renewable energy is its predictability and reliability, especially for tidal energy. It is predictable and reliable because it comes from accessible sources like wind, bodies of water and the gravitational forces of the sun, moon and earth. Once you find a potential site, then you can predict long-term energy resource. To match the supply with changing levels of demands, energy storage is key.
2. What are the effective business models that countries may employ to maximise the potentials of ORE? What are the (commercialisation) opportunities and challenges for each of them?
In terms of the Southeast Asian region itself, the one that is more recognised and effective based on the projects we studied is a phased approach where you deploy the technology by array or incrementally. In this approach, although CAPEX and OPEX are high on the onset, costs will be eventually decreased when additional turbines are deployed in the sea. More accurate estimation of costs is also expected when we know that these technologies are working at local sea conditions.
Another model is hybridization, which means that you are not installing tidal turbines right away but combining them first with diesel gensets, solar PV and/or tidal turbines. According to studies, this approach is more viable and it makes sense politically and socially for most communities. Cost-wise and acceptance-wise, this also makes more sense based on local deployment experience. Then later on, the goal is to have a full transition to a renewable energy system.
In all cases, it is required to do proper resource assessment to know the viability of ocean energy, environment impact assessment which is crucial to any marine project to know its impact on marine life, environment and diversity, and finally marine spatial planning or MSP. MSP is important as sea space caters to many users and not only to energy developers. In this way, an ocean energy project is tuned in or holistically developed with the needs and challenges of other marine users like fishermen, shipping, or even defence. These sectors can even think of combined solution to address marine decarbonisation or achieving blue economy!
Another commercial model is by starting with demonstration/test sites or the learning by doing process. National governments can provide marine space for project and technology developers and other supply chain players to test the ocean energy technology in actual sea conditions. More commercial-scale deployments in the region are needed to have accurate projections of the costs of deploying and sustaining ocean energy technologies. These deployments can be a source of “best practices” specifically suitable to Southeast Asian conditions and processes.
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