Marine Tidal And Wave Energy Converters

The worldwide potential of electric power generation from marine tidal currents, waves, or offshore winds is enormous. The high load factor resulting from the fluid properties and the predictable resource characteristics make tidal and wave energy resources attractive and advantageous for power generation and advantageous when compared to other renewable energies. The technologies are just beginning to reach technical and economic viability to make them potential commercial power sources in the near future. While only a few small projects currently exist, the technology is advancing rapidly and has huge potential for generating bulk power. Moreover, international treaties related to climate control and dwindling fossil fuel resources have encouraged us to harness energy sustainably from such marine renewable sources. Several demonstrative projects have been scheduled to capture tidal and wave energies. A number of these projects have now reached a relatively mature stage and are close to completion. However, very little is known to the academic world about these technologies beyond the basics of their energy conversion principles. While research emphasis is more towards hydrodynamics and turbine design, very limited activities are witnessed in power conversion interface, control, and power quality aspects. Regarding this emerging and promising area of research, this book aims to present recent results, serving to promote successful marine renewable energies integration to the grid or to standalone microgrids.

Concerns relating to energy supply and climate change have driven renewable energy targets around the world. Marine renewable energy could make a significant contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating the consequences of climate change, while providing a high-technology industry. The conversion of wave and tidal energy into electricity has many advantages. Individual tidal and wave energy devices have been installed and proven, with commercial arrays planned throughout the world. The wave and tidal energy industry has developed rapidly in the past few years; therefore, it seems timely to review current research and map future challenges. Methods to improve understanding of the resource and interactions (between energy extraction, the resource and the environment) are considered, such as resource characterisation (including electricity output), design considerations (e.g., extreme and fatigue loadings) and environmental impacts, at all timescales (ranging from turbulence to decadal) and all spatial scales (from device and array scales to shelf sea scales).

A comprehensive text covering all aspects of wave and tidal energy Wave and Tidal Energy provides a comprehensive and self-contained review of the developing marine renewable energy sector, drawing from the latest research and from the experience of device testing. The book has a twofold objective: to provide an overview of wave and tidal energy suitable for newcomers to the field and to serve as a reference text for advanced study and practice. Including detail on key issues such as resource characterisation, wave and tidal technology, power systems, numerical and physical modelling, environmental impact and policy. The book also includes an up-to-date review of developments worldwide and case studies of selected projects. Key features: A comprehensive and self-contained text covering all aspects of the multidisciplinary fields of wave and tidal energy. Draws upon the latest research in wave and tidal energy and the experience of leading practitioners in numerical and laboratory modelling. Regional developments worldwide are reviewed and representative projects are presented as case studies. Wave and Tidal Energy is an invaluable resource to a wide range of readers, from engineering students to technical managers and policymakers to postgraduate students and researchers.

A concise yet technically authoritative overview of modern marine energy devices with the goal of sustainable electricity generation With 165 full-colour illustrations and photographs of devices at an advanced stage, the book provides inspiring case studies of today’s most promising marine energy devices and developments, including full-scale grid-connected prototypes tested in sea conditions. It also covers the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney, Scotland, where many of the devices are assessed. Topics discussed: global resources – drawing energy from the World’s waves and tides history of wave and tidal stream systems theoretical background to modern developments conversion of marine energy into grid electricity modern wave energy converters and tidal stream energy converters This book is aimed at a wide readership including professionals, policy makers and employees in the energy sector needing an introduction to marine energy. Its descriptive style and technical level will also appeal to students of renewable energy, and the growing number of people who wish to understand how marine devices can contribute to carbon-free electricity generation in the 21st century.

The waves that animate the surface of the oceans represent a deposit of renewable energy that for the most part is still unexploited today. This is not for lack of effort, as for more than two hundred years inventors, researchers and engineers have struggled to develop processes and systems to recover the energy of the waves. While all of these efforts have failed to converge towards a satisfactory technological solution, the result is a rich scientific and technical literature as well as extensive and varied feedback from experience. For the uninitiated, this abundance is an obstacle. In order to facilitate familiarization with the subject, we propose in this work a summary of the state of knowledge on the potential of wave energy as well as on the processes and technologies of its recovery (wave energy converters). In particular, we focus on the problem of positioning wave energy in the electricity market, the development of wave energy conversion technologies from a historical perspective, and finally the energy performance of the devices. This work is aimed at students, researchers, developers, industry professionals and decision makers who wish to acquire a global perspective and the necessary tools to understand the field. Reviews the state of knowledge and developments on wave energy recovery Presents the history of wave energy recovery Classifies the various systems for recovering this type of energy

The worldwide potential of electric power generation from marine tidal currents, waves, or offshore winds is enormous. The high load factor resulting from the fluid properties and the predictable resource characteristics make tidal and wave energy resources attractive and advantageous for power generation and advantageous when compared to other renewable energies. The technologies are just beginning to reach technical and economic viability to make them potential commercial power sources in the near future. While only a few small projects currently exist, the technology is advancing rapidly and has huge potential for generating bulk power. Moreover, international treaties related to climate control and dwindling fossil fuel resources have encouraged us to harness energy sustainably from such marine renewable sources. Several demonstrative projects have been scheduled to capture tidal and wave energies. A number of these projects have now reached a relatively mature stage and are close to completion. However, very little is known to the academic world about these technologies beyond the basics of their energy conversion principles. While research emphasis is more towards hydrodynamics and turbine design, very limited activities are witnessed in power conversion interface, control, and power quality aspects. Regarding this emerging and promising area of research, this book aims to present recent results, serving to promote successful marine renewable energies integration to the grid or to standalone microgrids.

Wave energy offers a promising renewable energy source, however, technologies converting wave energy into useful electricity face many design challenges. This guide presents numerical modelling and optimization methods for the development of wave energy converter technologies, from principles to applications. It covers the development status and perspectives of wave energy converter systems; the fundamental theories on wave power absorption; the modern wave energy converter concepts including oscillating bodies in single and multiple degree of freedom and oscillating water column technologies; and the relatively hitherto unexplored topic of wave energy harvesting farms. It can be used as a specialist student textbook as well as a reference book for the design of wave energy harvesting systems, across a broad range of disciplines, including renewable energy, marine engineering, infrastructure engineering, hydrodynamics, ocean science, and mechatronics engineering. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.routledge.com has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

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.