Text
E-book Handbook of Ocean Wave Energy
There is a great demand for renewable energy and a need to diversify the renewableenergy mix. This can easily be seen on the significant annual increase in globalinvestment in renewable energy, such as wind and solar. Wave energy has even beenadditionally stimulated in some countries as they recognise its benefits and greatpotential. The technology push came mainly in the form of public grants and capitalinvestment in technology development, while the market pull through public marketincentives, such as revenue support (the feed-in tariffs) [1,2]. This indicates that theusability and desirability (or human value) are currently very positive.An impressive amount of wave energy technologies have been developed overthe last 25 years. To give an indication hereof, the list of current wave energydevelopers at EMEC counts 256 developers [3]. The working principles of most ofthese technologies can be grouped into a handful of main categories. This justindicates how great the effort has been from the developers (see more in Chap.2).The last missing factor for production innovation success is the businesspotential or economic viability of the wave energy technologies within the frames of the market (with or without incentives). The business case is made based on cost(CapEx and OpEx) and power production calculations (read more in Chaps.4and5). To be able to demonstrate a positive business case, a significant amount of proof(for the calculation) and thereby experience with the WEC is expected to begathered before. Although some investors can be convinced on the way in the greatbusiness potential of a WEC, it will probably still require a decent track record of anoffshore full-scale WEC before it will convince a larger market. This is particularlydifficult to realise with WECs since the development cost is particularly high (e.g.compared to wind energy) and the development process long. This is especially dueto the harsh offshore environment, which requires special equipment and vesselsand which is not easily accessible. So, the development process requires a carefulbalance between technology optimisation and physical progress. The best advice is,therefore, to keep on investigating the economic potential along the developmentprogress as there is no reason to progress if it is absent.
Tidak tersedia versi lain