Wang, Z., Carriveau, R., Ting, D. S. K., Xiong, W., & Wang, Z. (2019).

A review of marine renewable

energy storage. International Journal of Energy Research, 43(12), 6108–6150.
https://doi.org/10.1002/er.4444

The main purpose of this article is to review the unique capabilities of marine renewable
energy systems like pumped hydro storage (PHS), compressed air energy storage (CAES),
battery energy storage (BES), hydrogen energy storage (HES), gravity energy storage (GES),
and buoyancy energy storage (ByES). Marine renewable energy (MRE) accounts for less than
3% of energy systems, however there are enormous energy potentials that can be capitalized on
within this industry. MRE generation can be done in a multitude of ways including offshore wind
farms, offshore solar, tidal range energy, marine current energy, wave energy, ocean thermal
energy, and salinity gradient energy. There are also a number of ways to store this type of energy
including pumped hydro storage (PHS) in sea water, subsea, low water head, and subterranean
among other systems like compressed air energy storage (CAES). The methodology behind this
article is a review, so the authors compiled and analyzed previously published information on the
topic of marine renewable energy storage.
The key findings of this review are that there are different levels of maturity, efficiency,
lifespan, costs, capacity and discharge, power and energy density, and storage rates among all of
the different types of marine energy storage, so it is hard to categorize them all under one sector
because they are all vastly different. However, if MRE and MRE storage is going to be able to
make an impact on our current energy infrastructure we need to start mapping out these systems
to be able to comprehend their full capabilities. PHS and CAES systems are what currently show
the most potential, but it is still unknown how large of a scale these would be able to function on.
The author is also not suggesting that MRE will be able to function all on its own, the proposed
findings show that if these systems are used in conjunction with existing onshore operations then
there are many positive impacts that they can have on operations and on reducing climate effects.
There are many shortcomings and limitations and limitations addressed by the author in
the pros and cons section. Some of the cons include, large scale reservoirs would be needed if
these techniques were going to be able to make a substantial difference, seawater corrosion,
marine biofouling, low energy efficiency, and the areas in which this would be able to be set up
are obviously limited to select geographic regions. Additionally a lot of MRE technologies are
dependent on future innovations like green marine ships. There are only a few countries as of
now that have even tried to adopt MRE technologies, and if there is going to be substantial
change within the industry more regions of the world are going to have to try out some of these
systems so that researchers will have more areas to test and data to collect.
This article helps to address the researchable question because it goes into some
extremely innovative and unique ways of creating and storing energy that are not generally
recognized when the topic of renewable energy storage comes up. MRE was not something that I
was even really aware of prior to finding this article, so it really does open up a whole new
industry to explore within the realm of the researchable question. There are many ways of
generating and storing MRE which expands the scope of the researchable question, but it is
limited mainly to coastal areas. Unfortunately though the stages that most of these technologies
are in are very immature and feasibly these technologies are going to be able to make a
difference in our energy infrastructure for many years to come.