Prime Movers Lab Podcast Recap: Ocean Energy
Josh Agenbroad and I hosted the most recent episode of Breakthrough Science with Prime Movers Lab and had the opportunity to discuss the latest advances in ocean energy technology with Anthony DiMare from Bedrock, Anders Jansson from CorPower Ocean, Beth Hartman from the U.S. Department of Energy, and Marcus Lehmann from CalWave. If you missed the episode, you can listen to it on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Here are some of the top takeaways from the discussion:
Waves and tides can complement other renewable energy sources
Wave and tidal energy can be predicted more accurately than solar and wind energy, and waves and tides are generally more consistent sources of energy. Waves and tides continue when the sun sets and the wind slows down. When combined with solar panels and wind turbines, wave and tidal technologies can reduce the need for expensive battery storage.
The federal government is helping to support technology development and early adoption
The Water Power Technologies Office is providing $45 million in funding to support tidal and current energy solutions. Applicants are encouraged to start the funding process early and find partners to ensure they can deliver.
Testing ocean energy technologies in the ocean is a very important part of the technology development process. PacWave is a pre-permitted wave energy test site being developed off the Oregon Coast and the test site is being funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. The test site will enable companies to test their technologies without the need to go through the long permitting process. CalWave conducted a 10-month demonstration test of their wave energy converter near San Diego and is preparing to test their device at PacWave.
There are many challenges, yet many opportunities
These include extreme waves, which can have a wave height of over 30 feet, but also the more gradual and persistent process of corrosion and biofouling. Permitting is also a challenge for marine energy companies. The permitting process can take a long time and many permits might be required. For example, CalWave needed nine permits for its demonstration deployment near San Diego. This exemplifies the benefit of having pre-permitted test sites, such as PacWave.
Surveying the ocean floor is currently a major challenge for marine projects, such as offshore wind, wave, and tidal. The current process is slow and expensive. Bedrock developed an autonomous submarine to gather data at a fraction of the cost with much lower disruption to wildlife. They can survey large areas and sell the data to developers who are looking for the best sites.
The cost associated with developing and maintaining ocean energy technologies is also a challenge. Even though the current levelized cost of electricity for ocean energy technologies is greater than onshore wind turbines and utility-scale solar panels, the cost could decrease as gigawatts of devices are installed (similar to how wind and solar technologies’ costs decreased). Costs could also decrease by collocating ocean energy technologies with offshore wind turbines partly because both technologies could use the same electrical infrastructure.
To learn even more about the marine energy industry, you can read our The Potential Of Ocean Energy Technologies blog post.
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