An Introduction to Renewable Energy Technologies | Unit 1

CONTENTS

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1 AN INTRODUCTION TO RENEWABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES

1.1 The Global Energy Market: Projections to 2030

1.2 The Characteristics of Modern Renewable Energy Developments
1.2.1 Renewable Energy Extraction and End-Use
1.3 C21 and the Growth in Renewable Energy Deployment
1.3.1 Growth in Solar Energy Generation
1.3.2 Growth in Biomass Energy
1.3.3 Growth in Hydro Power Generation
1.3.4 Growth in Wind Energy Generation
1.3.5 Wave Energy Potential
1.3.6 Tidal Energy
1.3.7 Tidal Barrage
1.3.8 Geothermal Energy
1.3.9 The Relative Scale of Conventional and Renewable Generation Technologies
1.3.10 Research and Development Technologies in the Marine Sector
1.4 Commercializing Renewable Energy Technologies

2 REFERENCES

3 STUDY TASKS

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LEARNING OBJECTIVES

The course begins with this introductory unit, which reviews the current status of the global
renewable energy sector. In the following units we will consider the natural flow and
storage of energy in the earth system and six renewable energy resources and the
technology necessary to exploit them. Six sectors are core to our syllabus: Solar, biomass,
hydro, wind, wave and tidal.

Coverage of each sector follows a common format that considers the nature of the resource;
the history of technology development; the extraction and conversion of available energy
fluxes; and, the current status of technology development.

Each unit concludes with either a ‘Study Tasks’ section or sample ‘Question and Answers’
where questions require either a written or an analytical response. The written essay
questions will normally require some research beyond the teaching materials presented,
while in the analytical questions, the application of basic mathematical approaches is
necessary. These assignments are important in establishing a sound knowledge base,
developing a contextual basis for the core materials and in preparation for the course
examination.

The aim of this introductory unit is to introduce some general facts about renewable
energy, to consider the nature and scale of the available resources and reflect on the current
development status of technologies.

At the end of this unit you should:

 Be aware of the global context and status of renewable energy technologies

generally and be able to broadly discuss some fundamental points regarding the
sources and nature of the renewable energy resources available.

 Be able to broadly discuss the position and potential of the marine renewable
technologies market in global terms.

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1 AN INTRODUCTION TO RENEWABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES

In this opening unit, we will consider the overall prospects for renewable energy to 2030.

Energy is one of the fundamentals of human life. It’s supply drives the entire global economy
– from basic subsistence living - where energy and other resources are often in relatively
short supply - to the developing and developed world’s seemingly inexhaustible quest for
ever-increasing standards of living.

Today’s societies - predominantly fueled by fossil fuels - face two critical issues: an
increasing scarcity of conventional energy resources and significant contributions to
environmental degradation. The need for greater long-term sustainability requires that we
research and develop new approaches to energy supply and demand and seek their
development, in a globally sustainable manner.

1.1 The Global Energy Market: Projections to 2030

In the 40 years between 1970 and 2010, global energy demand grew by an estimated 127%
- from 243 to over 550 Exajoules/year (1EJ = 1018 Joules; 550EJ/year = 153 000 TWh/year) -
with developing nations taking an increasing share. In contrast in 2010 around 1.3 billion -
20% of the world’s population - had no access to electricity (IEA, 2011).

Since the 1973 oil crisis, advocates of renewable energy have been predicting a take-over of
substantial portions of the energy infrastructure by renewable resources. In the decades since
there has been a steady increase in the contribution from renewable energy sources to the
global energy mix.

By 2012, renewable energy contributed an estimated 19% of global final energy

consumption, comprising contributions from modern renewables of 10% and traditional
biomass 9%. Of the modern renewable contribution, heat energy accounted for an estimated
4.2%, hydropower made up about 3.8%, and an estimated 2% was provided by power from
wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass, as well as by biofuels (REN21 (2014) Renewables
Global Status Report).

In the opening decades of the 21st century, the expanding global economy is demanding
increasing amounts of energy - in all sectors and in all forms - as the world’s population rises
from 6.6 billion in 2007 towards a predicted 8.2 billion by 2030. Over 70% of this projected
energy rise will be from India and China, which notably surpassed the United States as top
global CO2 emitter in 2007.

The greatest rise in the market will be in the demand for electricity: predicted by the
International Energy Agency (IEA, 2011) to grow almost twice as fast (3% per annum) as
overall energy use (1.8%) between 2007 and 2030.

At the outset of the 21st century projections towards a future ‘zero-emissions’ generation of
electricity were predicated on large increases in both conventional nuclear and renewable
energy technologies alongside commitments to maximizing its efficiency of use in all sectors
– domestic, commercial, industrial and transport.

Low carbon generation – whether renewable, nuclear or clean coal technology – involves
particular societal concerns on the impacts of resource exploitation. In 2011 there were

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further indications from around the world that an expansion of the nuclear industry may not
be a globally-accepted solution to achieving reduced energy-related CO2 emissions. The
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear station accident resulted in all 50 commercial reactors in Japan
(providing 30% of electricity needs) being taken offline for safety checks. Protests followed
across the country as the first reactors were switched back on in 2012. In 2011, Germany
announced plans to abandon nuclear energy (which had been providing 18% of its electricity)
within 11 years with 6 nuclear plants being immediately closed down.

More than half of the electricity generation by 2030 will be provided by technologies which
have emerged since the 1990’s, including combined cycle gas turbines (CCGT), advanced
coal technologies and much renewables-based generation.

Projections by the IEA to 2035 forecast a rise in renewable electricity to provide almost one
third of total needs, with solar growing more rapidly than any other renewable technology.
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) predicts that total generation from
renewable energy sources (the fastest growing source of electricity in its ‘Future Outlook’
scenarios to 2035) will increase by 3% annually and that the share of electricity from
renewable generation - mostly from hydro and wind sources - will increase from 18% to 23%
(2007 to 2035).

Hydroelectricity is predicted to lead with 2.4 million GWh from a total of 4.5 million GWh
from new renewable generation overall. Their projections suggest hydroelectricity is one of
the few renewable technologies which will compete economically with fossil fuels over the
period.

The reality of the fossil fuels dominance of world energy supply is that by 2030 around 90%
of global energy demands will still be met by fossil fuels, with likely contributions from oil
(34%), coal (28%) and natural gas (25%).

1.2 The Characteristics of Modern Renewable Energy Developments

‘Renewable Energy’ is the term used to cover energy flows that occur naturally and
repeatedly in the environment – including energy from the sun, wind and oceans, from plants
and the fall of water. Added to these resources we usually also consider the portion of energy
extractable from residual waste material (once all recycling options have been employed),
and which is biological in origin - to be renewable energy.

If we can extract energy in such a manner that there is no long term reduction in the natural
energy flows (often called ‘fluxes’) then we can consider this to be ‘renewable energy’. With
renewable energy sources, the natural fluxes will continue whether or not we extract energy,
however, if we choose to extract energy then there will always be impacts on the surrounding
environment to be evaluated and considered.

Figure 1 shows the available forms of renewable energy on Earth and the contributions they
can provide to various energy end-use markets. All of civilizations past, present and future
energy usage can be traced back to the theoretical but widely accepted ‘Big Bang’ event,
some 13.7 billion years ago. The 3 fundamental sources of energy which have ultimately
resulted from this event are Solar, Gravitational and Nuclear energy.

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Figure 1 Earth’s available renewable energy resources.

Solar energy flows from the Sun’s continuous nuclear fusion reaction and provides the earth
with direct solar energy (in thermal and electromagnetic forms), stored heat in the ground
and oceans, energy in secondary forms such as biomass and also in the form of dynamic
forces within winds and waves. Gravitational forces of the Sun and Moon provide tidal
energy, whilst geothermal energy is the result of nuclear reactions.

The future global energy mix will involve harnessing an increasingly wide range of energy
resources - including all forms of renewable energy - but also continued nuclear energy,
expansion in shale oil and gas, the controversial fracking of oil and gas wells, and carbon
fuels generation with carbon capture and sequestration.

Energy delivery will be via increasingly inter-connected supply systems including smart
grids, continent-wide electricity grids, biofuel supply chains and by new energy carriers such
as hydrogen.

New solutions to limiting and controlling emissions from entering the atmosphere will
include increased home and distributed generation, cleaner transport solutions and
establishing a sequestration industry.

1.2.1 Renewable Energy Extraction and End-Use

Generally in the renewable sector, the fuels can be regarded as ‘free’ – available at no
purchase cost - and we can achieve optimum energy extraction by determining where in the
environment the maximum flows will occur. In addition we can enhance the available
resource - examples being planting biomass crops where no useable crop was previously
present, using concentrating techniques for solar radiation, or increasing the velocity of a
tidal flow through a concentrating duct prior to extracting the enhanced energy.

Often renewable energy resources are located within remote, rural locations which are
important in terms of their landscape quality or habitat values - for wildlife, agriculture or
tourism. Maximizing a renewable energy device’s energy extraction efficiency will mean
that fewer devices are ultimately required (with a lower geographic footprint) to provide a
given energy output.

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Renewable energy technologies are extremely varied in both type and scale, in the challenges
and opportunities they present, and in the uses to which they can be effectively be put. One
basic distinction between the various technologies is their end-use product, the categories
being power (electricity) generation, heat and transport fuels as shown in Table 1.

Certain resources lend themselves to applications across all end-use markets. One example
is the versatility of biomass and biofuels - long-established in powering combined heat and
power (CHP) plants; employed for heat production on individual or community scheme
levels; and in recent times increasingly used to produce transport fuels. Solar thermal energy
in the world’s sunbelts is also being increasingly deployed to generate electricity where the
storage of heat in molten salts also allows for extended generation after sunset but also has
potential for providing process heat to industry.

Part of the reason for the modern impetus in the renewable energy sector is a change in
attitudes from scepticism to opportunism as certain fundamental value drivers have changed
- principally changing environmental policy parameters and growing technical
achievements.

End-Use Market Resource and Technologies

Solar thermal
Solar photovoltaics
Hydro-electricity
Power Generation Wind
Biomass and biofuels
Tidal stream and tidal barrage
Wave
Active solar
Passive solar
Biomass and biofuels
Heat Generation
Geothermal
Waste heat
Environmental (air, ground and water) heat
Liquid and gaseous biomass-derived biofuels
Transport Fuels Battery charging from renewable electricity
Hydrogen produced from renewable electricity
Table 1 Resources and technologies appropriate to particular end-use markets

The driving forces behind today’s renewable energy revolution are multifold. Most
importantly, certain renewable energy technologies (such as wind) have become
progressively cheaper and reliable to a point where they are now increasingly viewed as
conventional and less as alternative generation options. Whereas renewable technologies of
the 1980’s were relatively expensive and unreliable, today technologies in several renewable
sectors are much closer to being ‘mission critical’ in their design.

Renewable energy resources also bring their own unique difficulties and challenges to
overcome. Since they depend on natural environmental processes often involving
meteorological conditions, security of supply is not always guaranteed and the range and
scale of resources available will vary significantly from one country to the next. Renewable
energy technologies also tend to have relatively high capital costs: essentially they use
dispersed energy resources with low concentrations compared to fossil fuels and require
greater development footprints to generate an equivalent amount of energy. The scale of
device deployment to extract meaningful amounts of power is usually considerable.

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Table 2 indicates typical available power densities for several key renewable energy
resources available around the UK.

Renewable Power Density Notes

Resource
Tidal 1.89 kW/m2 for a 3 knot (1.5m/s) Assumes seawater density
Stream stream 1030kg/m3
35.9 kW/m2 for an 8 knot (4.1m/s)
stream
Incident 0.23 to 0.17 kW/m2 (July) Average incident power over a
Solar 0.025 to 0.017 kW/m2 (January) 24 hour period on a horizontal
Radiation surface
Wind 0.61 kW/m2 for a 10m/s Windspeeds above the
Energy windspeed maximum quoted speed
(usually around 25m/s) are not
normally collected
Wave Annual average incident wave Significant amounts of the
Energy power: 62-70kW/m in deeper, incident energy cannot be
west-facing coastal (e.g. north- collected. Levels decrease
west Scotland) waters significantly as depth
decreases towards shore.
Table 2 Typical power densities of several renewable resources in the UK.

The technologies involved in the renewable energy sector are at differing levels of maturity,
ranging from the ‘technically mature’ (hydro, wind and some forms of solar) to ‘technical
demonstration’ (biomass crops, fuels and conversion technologies) to technologies under
‘research, development and demonstration’ (wave and tidal energy).

Since the 1990’s wind and solar technologies have progressed into commercial markets.
Wind farms are now being deployed on Gigawatt scales, whilst solar technologies such as
photovoltaics - long-regarded as small scale, remote, off-grid applications - are now
developed in expanding solar farms where the larger schemes generate hundreds of
megawatts of capacity to the grid.

Where renewables were previously regarded as small-scale and the ‘green’ option, multi-
national corporations now take strategic interests in renewable energy technology
developments.

Evaluations of ‘alternative’ energies - biomass, geothermal, wave and tidal - and of new
energy carriers such as hydrogen are being undertaken worldwide. Momentum is growing as
companies and investors make strategic bets that particular renewable technologies will
further advance, become more cost-effective and move from niche to mainstream markets
sooner rather than later.

These companies and others realize that the future energy portfolio is going to be increasingly
diverse. This represents a fundamental change for what once were the ‘oil companies’ who
are increasingly marketing themselves as 'energy' companies. Figure 2 projects how such an
energy company's interests may develop.

As the renewable energy sector develops there will be increased opportunities for
diversification for other industries and businesses. In the marine renewable energy sector for
example, services required include specialist installation and maintenance vessels, piling,

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tower construction, blades manufacture, gearbox supply, generator design, surveying, cable
laying, environmental monitoring, project management, operation and maintenance
functions, and many more.

Figure 2 The Energy Company of the 21st century.

1.3 C21 and the Growth in Renewable Energy Deployment

Modern society demands increasing amounts of energy in forms which are both concentrated
and readily available. For renewable energy resources the opposite is invariably true - they
are diffuse, often variable (in time, location and magnitude) and their availability does not
always coincide with demand. In addition while they are often regarded as being
environmentally benign, we must recognize that deployment of renewable energy
technologies on increasingly large scales will inevitably also involve significant
environmental impacts.

The challenge is to develop technologies that will harness renewable sources in an efficient
and economic manner - without widespread and unacceptable effects on environments and
ecology.

Fundamental to the success and ultimate penetration of all renewable energy developments
is the geographic nature and reliability of the resource in question. Several renewable
resources (solar, biomass and wind) have global scale potential for energy production - albeit
with widely varying levels of resource from one country to another - whilst others
(geothermal and tidal energy) have from the outset a much more limited geographic potential.

Rapid growths in market penetration for a number of renewable technologies have been
witnessed since the beginning of the 21st century, the solar energy sector being a case in
point. Solar thermal and solar photovoltaic technology has relevance for most countries
renewable energy programmes - however it is the sunbelts of the world where the potential
for massive solar generation projects lies.

Likewise, most countries include wind generation in their future generation policies however
the main exploitation will take place in the higher latitudes of continents. The biomass and
hydro sectors are again developed in many countries worldwide, however very large scale
exploitation of these resources requires vast areas of suitable land, topography and climatic
conditions.

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For biomass cultivation, it is the sunnier, warmer sub-tropical regions of the world which
can provide various forms of wood or fibre, starch and sugar and vegetable oils at the upper
end of the yield range.

Still other sectors such as the marine renewable energies (including wave, tidal stream, tidal
barrage and ocean thermal energy conversion), hot-dry rock geothermal energy and a range
of biomass fuels are under intensive research and development in various regions of the
world. With the exception of biomass fuels – these emerging markets require very precise
resource characteristics and therefore will be exploited in a more limited range of geographic
locations around the world.

The recent growth in each of the core sectors are discussed further in the following sections.

1.3.1 Growth in Solar Energy Generation

Until the 21st century, solar photovoltaic technologies were generally regarded as a niche
market – a power technology for remote off-grid locations and portable appliances. In terms
of solar PV farms the first development was in California in 1982 with a peak installed
capacity of 1MWp. This was followed by a second farm of 5.6MWp in 1984 however these
were essentially R&D schemes and later decommissioned.

It was only with the introduction of Feed-in-Tariffs (FITs) in Germany in 2004 that the real
stimulation of the solar PV farm market began. By 2012 the market included farms such as
the Charanka Solar Park (Figure 3) in India rated at 214 MWp. Charanka has a typically
modular build philosophy and is expected to ultimately reach a capacity of 500 MWp. It is
made up of 17 thin-film PV systems and part of a group of solar parks in Gujarat in western
India. Other market leaders include Germany - a surprising position, but a reflection of an
industry where currently development is more dependent on incentives than insolation levels.
The market expansion is also a reflection of the falling system cost of PVs and the increasing
price of electricity generation by conventional technologies.

Figure 3 Charanka Solar Park, Northern Gujarat: 17 different projects by 17 different

developers

After a similarly long development history, the solar thermal power industry now has
developments of a similar scale to PV farms. The sector is dominated by ‘Parabolic Trough’
technologies followed by Solar ‘Power Towers’. Dominant countries include Spain and the
US, where in 2012 the Ivanpah solar thermal plant in California was under construction –
consisting of 3 towers each with its own set of mirrors, and a total generating capacity of
370MWe.

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Which of the 2 solar technologies – photovoltaics or solar thermal power – will become
dominant in terms of global market leader is as yet unclear. Economics may favour PVs
however solar thermal plants can offer the valuable advantage of storage and therefore offer
much greater dispatchability – the ability to send power into the grid as required beyond its
operational sunlight hours.

1.3.2 Growth in Biomass Energy

Most developed areas of the world see Biomass expansion as a key opportunity to reducing
global CO2 emissions, increasing security of supply and/or prolonging the life of dwindling
oil reserves.

There are two major benefits of extending the biomass market. Firstly Biomass represents
energy which is available in an easily storable form, from which it can be released as and
when required. Secondly, while burning fossil fuels releases CO2 that has been stored for
1000’s of years, the evolution of so-called biogenic CO2 just releases carbon that has recently
been fixed by present day photosynthesis.

The price paid for energy crops reflect the inputs to agriculture or forestry, harvesting,
storage, processing and transport – difficult to reduce. However much of the cost is
associated with production in the field – so the ultimate cost of biomass delivered to the
factory gate depends on the yield of the plant and the growth characteristics - part genetic
and part determined by the climate.

At present biomass makes up perhaps 5% of the total energy budget for the EU (45Mt oil
equivalent) although several member countries are much further ahead.

Several markets are currently booming such as the pellet market which is expected to grow
at 11.1% until 2020 – stimulated in part by its adoption in the power industry – and backed
by government initiatives and stringent environmental regulations.

Figure 4 Global Biomass Crops include Sweet Sorghum, Sunflower seed and Miscanthus

Biomass is viewed as having an auspicious future by many obervers. By 2030 biomass could
account for 60% of total final renewable energy use and has potential in all sectors. (IRENA,
2014). Electricity generation combined with district heating could account for nearly a third
of global biomass by 2030. Liquid biofuels for transport may grow nearly as quickly to 28%
of biomass use (ibid). Several other studies including by the IPCC (2011) agree that Biomass
will be the single most important resource to mitigate climate change.

There are however many challenges to biomass and doubts are raised about the genuine
sustainability of biomass. The most often cited issue is the fuel versus food debate.
Affordability, supply security and sustainable sourcing are major concerns (ibid).

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1.3.3 Growth in Hydro Power Generation

The hydroelectricity industry has witnessed massive developments in the early 21st century
- the largest hydroelectric scheme in the world was completed in China in 2012 when the last
of the 32 generators at the Three Gorges Dam (Figure 5) on the Yangtze River began
generating. The controversial scheme has a combined capacity of 22.5GW, the equivalent of
some 15 nuclear reactors and has resulted in a reservoir of over 600km in length and the
displacement of 1.4 million people.

Globally around 19% of the potential hydro resource has been developed. While
hydroelectric power projects are being developed in around 80 countries worldwide, the
majority of the remaining potential is with developing countries in South and Central Asia,
Latin America and Africa. The uneven distribution is illustrated by the fact that ten countries
account for about two thirds of the global potential. In contrast, most European countries
have already harnessed the majority of their economically feasible hydro power.

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) predicts that hydroelectric power will
constitute more than half (55%) of the renewable energy added globally through 2035. The
greatest growth will be outside the countries of the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-
operation and Development) where much of the potential remains unharnessed.

Figure 5 The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in Japan: the largest generating
station in the world at 22.5GW

Storage of energy will become increasingly crucial as greater levels of renewable generation
are developed. Hydroelectric technology in the form of Pumped Storage – using an upper
and lower reservoir – is normally used to strategically store power during off-peak periods
when electrical demand is low and consequently power is cheaper. This is another important
opportunity for countries with suitable hydro sites where the bulk storage of power can
provide an invaluable solution to the storage of variations in power from renewable
generation such as wind.

1.3.4 Growth in Wind Energy Generation

While commercial exploitation of the hydro resource has been a reality for well over a
century, wind energy developments have only comparatively recently been accepted as
commercial - the breakthrough in market penetration has to a large degree been encouraged
by incentives.

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The growth in wind power installations in the early part of the 21st century has been at an
exponential rate. For onshore wind the installed capacity increased 12 fold between 2000 and
2011 – from an installed capacity of 17.5GW to 215GW. The dominant five producers of
wind power in this period were China, the US, Germany, Spain and India with 74% of the
installed capacity.

Geographically, the largest installed capacity of wind turbines in the world at the end of 2012
was in China’s north-western province of Gansu where the combined grouping of large wind
farms provides a total installed capacity of 5GW, expected to increase to 20GW by 2020.

Offshore wind energy technology followed a logical market progression from the rapid
commercialization made onshore where design consolidation, improved reliability and
reduced generating costs have all dramatically improved.

Once onshore wind turbine technology began to achieve greater levels of reliability and
reduced costs the attractions of installing devices in the offshore environment were an
obvious next step. To compensate for the significantly increased costs of installation, grid
connection and maintenance the offshore environment offers a number of advantages. These
include windspeeds which are typically around 20% higher, reduced periods of calm, reduced
turbulence and lower visual impact and noise.

The first offshore wind turbine was installed off Sweden in 1990 – a single 220kW 3-bladed
machine with a 38metre hub height. This was quickly followed by the first windfarm
installed at Vindeby in the Danish sector of the Baltic Sea. The farm consisted of eleven
450kW Bonus turbines on concrete gravity bases, arranged in 2 parallel rows about 2km
offshore.

The global offshore wind market expanded almost 50 fold from 80MW to 3813MW in the
same timeframe (2000-2011), with the largest farm commissioned and producing by 2012
being the UK’s 367MW Walney wind farm off Cumbria in the Irish Sea (102 Siemens
3.6MW turbines in 2 groupings). This was surpassed in 2013 by the London Array at 630MW
(Figure 6).

By the end of 2013 the industry has witnessed rapid growth. Europe was leading with over
2,000 turbines (more than 90% of the world market) and 6.5GW installed in 69 offshore wind
farms (EWEA). The average wind turbine size was 4MW and average windfarm size
485MW. The majority of turbines had foundation technologies based on monopiles (75%),
gravity jackets (12%), jackets (5%), tripods (5%) and tripiles (2%).

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Figure 6 The London Array offshore windfarm completed in 2013 at 630MW installed
capacity. The turbines export power at 33kV which is raised to 150kV at two offshore
substations before being sent onshore by 4 main cables.

The deepest fixed foundation turbines (2 x 5MW) were in 45 metres of water located at the
Beatrice oilfield off eastern Scotland, the largest offshore wind turbines were of 6.15MW
rated capacity off Belgium, and there were two full-scale grid-connected floating turbines.

Predictions are for 40GW of capacity by 2020 which would provide 4% of the EU’s demand
for electricity.

Floating wind structures require that large machines are deployed to justify the much greater
economics of the build out - turbines of 10 and up to perhaps 20MW capacity could
eventually be deployed. Such capacities offshore will be a significant driver towards the
establishment of a European ‘Supergrid’.

1.3.5 Wave Energy Potential

Wave energy is generally regarded as the most difficult and challenging sector in the marine
renewables industry. Developers are seeking to design devices which from an engineering
perspective are as simple as possible and from an operational perspective as easy to install
and remove as possible. They are attempting to generate during the most frequently
occurring wave energy conditions, yet survive the most challenging extremes, and all while
seeking to achieve the greatest cost-effectiveness possible.

Wave energy has a vast global potential however the majority of the resource is found on
high latitude, west-facing coastlines. If devices can be brought to a state of technical
reliability at competitive generation costs then they can be a major renewable energy
contributor.

Table 3 highlights recent achievements from the modern era of wave energy testing – these
are intended to illustrate the recent progression in the industry. A fuller history of
development is presented in the individual wave energy chapter.

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Year Developer Project description

2000 Wavegen Commissioned the first grid connected generation from their
shoreline LIMPET (Land installed marine-powered energy
transformer) oscillating water column on Islay. This plant was
still operation in 2013
2004 Ocean Power Installed the first offshore grid-connected Pelamis P1 at EMEC
Delivery
2008 Ocean Power Deployed the world’s first wave energy farm, consisting of 3 P1
Delivery 750kW capacity Pelamis machines (total farm capacity
2.25MW) off Portugal
2013 Aquamarine The nearshore Oyster 800 deployed at the EMEC Wave Test
Area in Orkney, operated in significant wave heights of 5.3metre
and peak waves of 9 metres
2012 Pelamis Demonstration wave farm resulted from two Pelamis P2 devices
Wave Power which were deployed together from 2012 at EMEC. These
experienced significant wave heights of 5m and individual
waves of almost 10m (see Figure 6).
Table 3 Selected achievements of the modern wave industry in the UK

Ultimately the greatest challenge is to satisfy the key and critical factor of survivability –
surviving storm conditions which will occur annually and from design principles cope with
conditions which are described as the 10-year, 25-year or even 100-year wave conditions.

These considerations together with the range of prospective development locations

(shoreline, nearshore or offshore), different design orientations (point absorber device,
attenuator or terminator) and reaction means (acting against the seabed or cliff, against a
fixed reference or a device acting against itself) means that the sector is one where a great
deal of ingenuity and innovation is required.

In 2015 the UK Wave sector experienced several setbacks with both the Pelamis (Figure 7)
and Aquamarine development programme closing and other developers downsizing
operations. A new Scottish government initiative, Wave Energy Scotland (WES) has been
established to support and accelerate the development of wave energy technology in
Scotland.

Figure 7 The first wave array in UK waters – two Pelamis P2 machines - reached a
combined 10,000 grid-connected hours during 2014.

1.3.6 Tidal Stream Energy

Tidal stream technologies harness the kinetic energy of moving water near to land masses –
where the combination of topography, seabed shape and depth produces enhanced
exploitable current velocities. The commercial global resource is much less widespread than

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for example offshore wind or wave and tends to be found in remote locations of a few
countries. In such cases these areas could not normally use all of the energy and a significant
challenge is therefore grid strengthening for export.

Table 4 illustrates the rapid developments which have taken place within the Tidal Stream
sector since Marine Current Turbines (MCT) installed their 300kW turbine off the north
Devon coast in 2003. That such rapid progress has been made is largely due to the
fundamental similarity between capturing energy from a moving airstream and from a tidal
flow, but the timing is a reflection of the maturing of wind energy technology and cost-
reductions made in the last decades of the 20th century.

The transfer of technology from the wind industry, together with advances made in the oil
and gas, electrical engineering and information technology sectors have given the impetus to
invest in the development of prototypes which are strikingly similar to wind turbines – 2 and
3 bladed horizontal axis rotors with generation taking place within a housing on the device.

With the horizontal rotor orientation clearly established as the preferred technology, key
considerations for tidal developers are the deployment methods in varying depths of water
and how the device aligns itself over the reverse in tidal direction between the ebb and flood
tidal flows. In these areas there are several different approaches being researched and tested.

Figure 8 Tidal developments have made impressive advances in recent years:

Scotrenewables completed testing of a 250kW floating tidal turbine (left) and have
developed their 2MW commercial device. Atlantis have begun assembly of turbines for
the Meygen project in the Pentland Firth (right)

Vital challenges remain in the engineering, and operation and maintenance (O&M) of
individual devices. Critical to the commercial success are optimizing the methods of
installation and maintenance – a factor which will become increasingly important as the
industry moves towards the installation of commercial turbine arrays.

Significant challenges also remain for the tidal sector in gaining a greater understanding of
the complex flows and loadings which are encountered by rotors in dynamic marine
environments. Research is ongoing into modelling the effects of taking energy out of tidal
flows, into turbulence and flow recovery in the downstream wake of individual turbines and
arrays, and the interactions between devices in array configurations. These areas are now
much better understood – the results of modelling flow conditions, working at model scale
in flume tanks and deployments of prototypes in real conditions. Considerable research work
continues, however certain issues will only become clearer once experience with arrays is
gained.

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Year Developer Project description

2003 Marine Installation of Seaflow 300kW horizontal axis non grid –
Current connected, single rotor, test device on monopole 3km
Turbines offshore near Lynmouth in the Bristol Channel, UK. After
(MCT) serving its purpose as a prototype, it was decommissioned in
2009.
2006 Open Installation of a twin pile test rig at the European Marine
Hydro Energy Centre (EMEC) allowing for testing of open centre
turbines. The initial 250kW open centre turbine was the first
to generate to the national grid in the UK. It has been
continually replaced as testing has progressed and by 2014
the 7th generation turbine had been installed.
2008 MCT Installation of Seagen 1.2MW twin-rotor turbine on
quadropod structure at Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland.
Grid-connected and with 16 metre diameter pitchable blades
2013 Alstom Installation of a commercial scale 1MW demonstrator turbine
at EMEC Orkney test site following acquisition of Tidal
generation Limited
2015 Leading Demonstration arrays of commercial size tidal turbines are in
onwards developers various stages of planning around the world including in the
UK (Pentland Firth, Hebrides and Channel Islands), Nova
Scotia, Canada, South Korea and elsewhere.
Table 4 Selected achievements of the modern tidal stream industry in the UK

1.3.7 Tidal Barrage

Tidal range developments have benefitted from the transfer of well proven technology from
the hydroelectric industry and marine structural engineering. It is a sector where further
design innovation and therefore further large reductions in the costs of potential schemes are
difficult. Potential barrage sites must have suitably high tidal ranges and favourable site
topography to make a commercially viable generating station. Schemes with large potential
such as the Severn Estuary in the UK have been proposed for some time but require enormous
amounts of capital, long development timescales and studies suggest they will cause
significant environmental impact. Schemes are likely to continue to be developed in selected
areas around the world where medium sizes plants of hundreds of MW are the likely scale.

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Figure 9 Sihwa Lake Tidal Power Station is the world's largest tidal power
installation, with a total power output capacity of 254 MW

1.3.8 Geothermal Energy

Geothermal energy is the thermal energy that results from the Earth's internal energy. For
power generation there are two main technologies: Flash Steam and Dry Steam technology.
The global market for geothermal energy has been growing at a rate of 10.9% annually,
mainly driven by the electricity transmission and distribution industry responding to
mandates to use renewable source of energy. The market is primarily driven by Asia-Pacific,
Europe and North America.

1.3.9 The Relative Scale of Conventional and Renewable Generation Technologies

Table 5 provides a ‘snapshot’ of the world’s largest generating plants – powered by
conventional and renewable resources – which were operational in 2013.

Of note is the largest generating facility ever built - The Three Gorges Dam in China (Figure
5) - which at 22.5GW is more than double the capacity of the largest nuclear station.

As with all comparisons the debate on the relative merits of each (resource, the effects of
energy extraction and environmental impacts) would find supporters for and against each
technology. The developments in hydro are continuing with stations of immense scale at
Xiluodu Dam (China, 13.9GW), Baihetan (China, 13GW) and Belo Monte (Brazil, 11GW).

The largest nuclear station, Kashiwazaki-Kariwa in Japan, is operated by the same company
who ran the Fukushima station which was critically damaged in the earthquake and tsunami
of 2011. The Nuclear industry in Japan is facing an uncertain future since the incident, with
the Nuclear Regulation Authority reviewing the implications of an active earthquake fault
line on the country’s nuclear capacity. The Taichung coal power station in Taiwan is the
world’s largest CO2 emitter – responsible for 40Mtonnes per annum – comparable to the total
annual emissions of Switzerland.

Generation Mode Plant Rated Commissioned Annual

Capacity Generation
(MW) (GWh)

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Hydro Three Gorges, China 22,500 2012 80,000

Nuclear Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, 8,212 1985 33,317
Japan
Coal Taichung, Taiwan 5,780 1992 42,000
Fuel Oil Surgut-2 PS, Russia 5,597 1985 34,900
Natural Gas Futtsu Power Station, 5,040 Stages 1985-
Japan 2010
Pumped Storage Bath County PS Station, 3,003 1985
US
Run of River Chief Joseph Dam, US 2,620 1979
Hydro
Oil Shale Eesti PS, Estonia 1,615 1973
Peat Shatura PS, Russia 1,020 1925
Wind (Onshore) Alta Wind Energy 1,020 2010 1,690
Centre, US
Biofuel Tilbury PS, UK 750 2011
Wind (Offshore) London Array, UK 630 2013
Concentrated SEGS, US 354 1984 662
Solar Thermal
Geothermal Hellisheiol PS, Iceland 303 2006
Tidal Barrage Sihwa Lake Tidal PS, S. 254 2011
Korea
Photovoltaic Agua Caliente Solar 250 2011 626
Project, US
Concentrated PV Alamosa Solar Project, 37 2012 87
US
Tidal Stream Seagen MCT, UK 1.2 2008
Table 5 Conventional and Renewable Generation: Largest Stations Generating by Rated
Capacity, 2013

Pumped Storage is not a direct generation means but uses off-peak power generated by other
plants at a time when power is cheapest to pump water from a low to high reservoir. This
energy is then available to convert back to grid electricity at critical times when power is in
greatest demand. This technology is the only large-scale and geographically widely available
storage option and one which will become more and more valuable as the capacity of on-
grid renewable energy (particularly of fluctuating generation) capacity increases. Bath
County Pumped Storage Station, Virginia is the most powerful worldwide and links
reservoirs with a 380 metre height difference, allowing electricity balancing over 6 states.

The leading offshore project by 2013 was the London Array Wind farm (Figure 6)
constructed in the outer Thames Estuary, England.

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) devices seek to exploit the temperature
difference between warmer shallow ocean water and cooler, deeper waters. Where suitable
temperature gradients exist they can be used to run a heat engine and produce useful work,
usually in the form of electricity. The technology has been trialed in areas of the world where
temperature differences of 20-25°C are available and deep water is found close to land,
favouring tropical regions. The main challenge for OTEC technology is to generate
significant amounts of power from these relatively small temperature differences.

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1.3.10 Research and Development Technologies in the Marine Sector

SECTOR Energy Conversion Technology Development Stage

Characteristic
Ocean Temperature Ocean Thermal Energy Pilot (5-10MW) and
Thermal differential in water Conversion (OTEC) conceptual 1st
Energy column generation plants.
Conversion
Osmosis Salinity gradient Pressurised membrane Research and
power Development
Biomass Marine Algae – quick Oil extracted and Biofuels initiatives in
growing coastal converted into biodiesel or Japan. Research
seaweeds following lipid extraction, widespread, however
the carbohydrate can be few commercial scale
fermented into bioethanol. projects
Table 6 The Range and Current Status of Marine Renewable Energy sectors

Osmosis, or salinity gradient power, seeks to make use of the energy released when two
liquids (for example seawater and fresh river water) of different salinity meet. Technologies
based on pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) and reverse electrodialysis (RED) are currently
being research in the likes of Norway and Holland respectively.

Marine Algae is being researched as a means of providing biofuels – either biodiesel from
the oily (lipid) part of the algae or bioethanol which involves the fermentation of the
carbohydrate once the lipid is extracted.

1.4 Commercializing Renewable Energy Technologies

When any industry is in the early crucial stages of development, costs for new and prototype
devices are generally accepted as high. To achieve commercial breakthroughs requires that
the technology developer works to achieve the lowest unit production costs for energy
generated.

This process requires maximising the device efficiency to achieve the optimum power
outputs across resource fluctuations and therefore high annual energy yields, measured by
criteria such as the device load factor. This in turn is achieved by steady gains being made
in device reliability, the effectiveness of the logistics of installation and maintenance and
minimising breakdowns, maintenance costs, and downtime.

In the early years of the offshore oil and gas industry, many design challenges were met by
the incorporation of large factors of safety to allow for a lack of fundamental understanding
of design loads. The high profitability of the oil business allowed the resulting high-cost
solutions in the short-term - occasional failures did not threaten such a well-financed
industry.

In contrast, the economics of marine renewable energy do not allow such a high-cost
approach, whilst early failures in high-profile projects can cause immense damage to the
confidence placed in a fledgling industry. Marine Energy Converters (MEC) designs must
meet stringent environmental legislation, must be efficient, cost effective, environmentally
friendly and above all reliable.

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Taking a tidal stream converter as an example, it becomes vital to have a fundamental

understanding of aspects such as the rotor’s performance and extraction efficiency, but also
of the nature of the variable hydrodynamic loadings on the system. These considerations
allow safe and cost-effective design of vital components such as the rotor blades and power
transmission system but also of the mooring/anchoring system. Optimisation through several
prototype stages will generally be required with the greatest cost reductions made in the early
years of prototype and full-scale testing. The developer must also strive to ensure cost-
effective intervention for operational maintenance.

Once the device has been through several prototype stages cost reductions will become
progressively harder and harder to achieve. Once the device reaches a critical state of
optimisation then increased economic competitiveness can be made by increasing production
to achieve economies of scale. Beyond the technology refinements such as switching to
lower cost materials or components and increased efficiency in the logistics operations, the
most obvious other factor is in site selection itself.

Figure 9 summarises this overview of marine energy site and device performance criteria
which ultimately is required to provide cost effective generation – normally in the form of
electricity input to the grid.

As several of the small developer companies have worked through their device development
programmes and achieved success with grid-connected devices they have caught the
attention of larger multinational engineering companies. These have in several notable cases
taken progressively greater stakes in the industry and companies such as Alstom, Siemens
and Andritz Hydro are established players.

Figure 9 Marine energy site / device economic appraisal

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2 REFERENCES

EWEA (2014). The European offshore wind industry - key trends and statistics 2013.

International Energy Agency (IEA), (2011). Future Outlook Scenarios to 2035. Available at
www.iea.org.

IPCC (2011), Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York, NY.http:// srren.ipcc-
wg3.de/report.

International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), (2014). Global Bioenergy Supply and
Demand Projections. A working paper for Remap 2030.

REN21. 2014. Renewables 2014 Global Status Report (Paris: REN21 Secretariat).
ISBN 978-3-9815934-2-6

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3 STUDY TASKS

Study tasks should involve doing a modest amount of research perhaps using the internet,
references (books, journals, scientific papers) as appropriate. Undertaking these tasks will
develop your research skills and provide a current viewpoint of the renewable sector and the
status of technology. At the end of the task you should have a few pages of notes which you
may wish to return to as an aid to revision.

Study Task 1: Wave and Tidal Technology

Conduct a web-based investigation to determine: -

 The current leading technology - in terms of grid-connected capacity - for each

of the wave and tidal stream sectors.
 Make notes on its development history and define why you feel it has become
a leading technology.
 What are the next stages of its planned development?

Study Task 2: Offshore Wind Technology

Select a leading country for offshore wind developments and provide: -

 A summary of its current status and analyses of its offshore generation

capacity.
 Focus on the most recent wind farm technology installed – familiarize yourself
with the specifications of the turbines, their foundations and inter-array and
shore electrical links.
 Research any ground-breaking or innovative offshore wind developments
taking place within that country.

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