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NEWSLETTERApril 2010 ISSUE 13
Contents8th European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference - 1Seabased AB - 2 Seapower - 2J´Adore INORE – 3Agenda Events on Ocean Energy – 4Ocean Energy Technology Surveys – 4Implementing Agreement Information - 4
EditorialWe are very glad to bring to your attention that Korea and South Africa have joined our Ocean Energy Systems Implementing Agreement at the beginning of 2010 bringing the member-countries number to nineteen. It is also relevant to mention that our 2009 Annual Report is available at our website enabling a wide dissemination of the activities of our member- and other countries, the work carried out by the four OES-IA Tasks in addition to invited articles on selected topics. This 13th Newsletter issue provides information on various topics of Ocean Energy, namely an overview of the 8th European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference and of the enthusi-astic increase of INORE, the Offshore Energy young researcher´s association. It also includes articles on two Swedish wave energy devices and as usual, information on a wide number of forthcoming Ocean Energy events, namely the Ocean Energy Conference to be held in May in Brussels and the ICOE 2010, which are co-organised by the OES-IA.
Teresa PontesAnnex I Operating AgentFirst OES-IA Chair
ICOE 2010:Over 200 authors participated in the call for abstracts
After closing the call for abstracts in January, more than 200 contributions have been submitted coming from about 20 countries all over the word. The abstracts have been reviewed by the ICOE Committee and first authors have been informed about the evaluation in March. Accepted contributors were invited to submit a full paper for oral or poster presentations according to the preference showed by the authors and the evaluation of the ICOE Committee.
ICOE 2010 is organised by EVE (the Basque Energy Board) and TECNALIA, with the partnership of the European Ocean Energy Association and the Implementing Agreement on Ocean Energy Systems of the International Energy Agency. The event is intended to attract the top companies in the world from the ocean energy sector and will combine 3 days of conferences with an exhibition. The conference and exhibition will take place on October 6th, 7th and 8th, 2010 at the Bilbao Exhibition Centre.
Keep yourself up to date at: www.icoe2010bilbao.com(Early bird registration now open)
Uppsala, Sweden, 7-10 September 2009
Mats Leijon Chairman of the EWTEC 2009 Organisational Committee
The biennial European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference series has grown steadily from the first edition that was held in Edinburgh in 1993. This year, more than 380 participants from 28 countries came to Uppsala Castle and Uppsala University to attend the conference. Following an intense peer-review process, 133 papers were selected for presentation and inclusion in the Conference Proceedings, which is an increase from 103 papers at the last conference in Porto 2007. Of the 133 papers, 25 were nominated for publication in a forthcoming special issue of IET Renewable Power Generation.
The opening session of the conference was held in the University Hall near the castle. There, the two preferential subjects of the conference, Grid connection and system aspects of wave and marine current power and Future markets and ocean energy financing, were highlighted by keynote speakers from three of the leading utility companies in the Nordic market – Vattenfall, Statkraft, Fortum.
The programme also offered the usual social events and some very interesting Technical Tours. The conference dinner was held in the main hall of the Uppsala Castle introducing the conference attendees to a traditional Uppsala “sittning”, which is a formal dinner party followed by dancing to live music. Many “sittning” traditions are influenced by the student lifestyle which has put its mark on Uppsala since 1477.
The most popular technical tour turned out to be the rather long trip to Uppsala University’s wave power research facility outside Lysekil on the Swedish west coast. Others, less keen on spending a full day on the bus, could enjoy a technical tour to Vattenfall’s Hydraulic Laboratory at Älvkarleby, or the research facility ABB High Voltage Laboratory in Ludvika.
The closing session was devoted to an open forum discussion. It was announced that the 9th European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference will take place in 2011 in Southampton.
Figure 1 – View of the 8EWTEC Banquet at the Hall of Uppsala Castle
8th European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference
National ActivitiesNational Activities
SEApowEr IntErnAtIonAl, A nEw opErAtor In thE mArkEt for powEr gEnErAtIon from ocEAn wAvES And wAtEr cUrrEntS.Inge Pettersson
Seapower International AB (Ltd) started app. twenty years ago in Sweden by Mr Göran Lagström, MSc, originally intending to extract rare ions from sea water. Later, Seapower was restructured, forming an entity with its activity directed towards generating environmentally friendly and sustainable energy from waves and water currents.
The first model tests of a wave power production plant were performed at the Chalmers Institute of Technology (CTH) in Gothenburg. Based on these results, a floating power vessel (FWPV) was developed, which received a SOR 3 contract with Scottish & Southern Energy in the year 1999 for the supply during 15 years of 5.2 GWh per year.
A first, 160 ton pilot vessel was built and tested during realistic conditions outside the Swedish west coast in up to twelve meters high waves during an eight-month period including the winter period. A full scale wave power production plant is now designed for a location outside the Shetland Islands, UK, with a nominal output of 1,500 kW. The power output is estimated to 5.2 GWh/year with a production cost of app. 0.03 US$/kWh.
In 2002, a new design of a vertical turbine intended for tidal currents and other water currents was thoroughly tested at the Ship and Research Centre in Gdansk, Poland. Based on these theoretical studies and scale tests, a full scale production unit was built. The unit was tested in the tidal currents outside the Shetland Islands. The practical test confirmed the theoretical performance data. The production costs for the electric power from a water current power plant is calculated to app. 0.04US$/kWh with a 11 kW generator with a yearly production capacity of 50 MWh/year.
To market tidal current turbines and generators, the company Shetland Tidal Power Ltd, based on Shetland, was formed in 2008.
Based on the experience gained in power generation from tidal currents, a company, Exim Strömturbiner AB (stream turbines), a fully own subsidiary to Seapower International, has been formed to develop and market turbines and power plants to generate electrical power from streams, rivers and other water currents. This market is considered to be very large not the least in third world countries, where many villages are located along rivers but are not connected to an electrical grid. Also, complete plants for electrical power generation and combined with equipment for the conversion of electricity to other energy media, such as Hydrogen or Methanol, will be marketed worldwide. Hydrogen and Methanol will have their major market as vehicle fuel, which we believe is an important venture in this time when we are forced to leave a fossil fuel based economy.
The Seapower Group is aiming at supplying power plants for renewable energy production with leading technology in the niches of wave power, tidal & stream power and small-scale wind power, establishing companies on the local markets in cooperation with local entrepreneurs. We believe in a combination of durable technical solutions and good profitability, achieved from low cost manufacturing and power plant maintenance.
Seapower Group Contact person: CEO Inge PetterssonCoordinator of all Seapower projects Seapower International AB (publ)[email protected]
Figure 3 - A photo from the test of a tidal current power turbine outside the Shetland Islands.
SEAbASEd AbBilly Johansson
In 2001 the first ideas of a new wave energy concept was worked out at the Uppsala University in Sweden. The wave energy converter is based on a direct drive linear generator placed at the ocean floor. The translator, which is mounted with permanent magnets, is connected to a buoy at the ocean surface, and thereby, the motion of the waves is transferred to the generator.Seabased AB is developing the system and adapting it for larger scale production and taking the wave energy concept to the commercial market. In this process has the collaboration with the Swedish energy agency (STEM) been important. The collaboration started with a preliminary-study for the possibility of a park of 1000 wave energy converters at the Swedish west coast. Among others, the sea bottom, the technology and different interests for sea water utilization have been studied. This preliminary-study was followed with the ongoing project aiming to build four 20kW and one 50kW wave energy converters, which will be deployed within a short time. This project is planned to be the last step before the technology is ready for entering into the market. Different crucial component will be tested namely wear and lifetime, extreme forces on buoys and wire having in view to be able to make the converters more reliable and efficient. This step is also intended to develop the system further and adapt it for larger scale production. Afterthis project a full-scale wave-farm is planned to be built together with Fortum and STEM; this farm is planned to be developed into three steps. In the first step, 42 wave energy converters (WECs) will be deployed and evaluated before it is extended first to 420 WEC and in the last step to 2000 WEC.In September last year Seabased AB has delivered their first wave energy plant to the Swedish energy company Vattenfall. The plant is a test facility consisting of two 20kW wave energy converters and one LVMS. The plant was installed at the Runde Environment Centre at the Norwegian coast in September 2009. The facility will be in operation for 2-3 years to evaluate the concept under the viewpoints of wear and energy production. This facility is the Seabased first facility connected and delivering energy to a commercial grid. The potential for wave energy in the world is estimated to 10000-15000TWh per year. In the Baltic Sea the potential can be as high as 24TWh which is 18% of the Swedish electric energy consumption in 2007.
Figure 2 - One 20kW wave energy converter installed off the Norwegian coast.
The keynote speakers included representatives from DEME, Scaldis, the European Commission’s Executive Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation, Heriot Watt University’s ICIT campus in Orkney and INORE’s main sponsors of 2006-8, Statkraft. The mix of people participating ensures that all aspects of offshore renewables were covered. All the issues participants face from their desktop and workshop research to the depths of seabed benthic life and all that lies between it and the tip of a turbine blade are covered. All these events are geared towards networking. The agenda has a strong emphasis on peer to peer presentations and interactive poster sessions. An informal atmosphere exists in all events and combined with the interactive break-out sessions of small topic oriented groups this invites debate, promotes discussions and ultimately generates ideas and solutions.
Last year, to support INOREan’s efforts towards more collaborative research and knowledge sharing, 5 travel funds of €250 were available to successful pairs of applicants from different institutes. The INORE Collaborative Incentive Scheme, ICIS, was set up to provide the initial funding needed to larger joint research applications or complete the research to achieve publications.
To continue our growth and build on what INORE can offer the offshore energy community we are hoping to attract more INOREan’s from industry to infiltrate the predominantly academic members. Our next workshop, preceding the 3rd International Conference on Ocean Energy in 2010, is open to all early stage researchers.
Ian Ashton said “INORE has helped me align my research with another colleague from a different research institute. We have structured our research on the physical impacts of wave energy so that our projects are now complimentary.”
J’Adore INOREthe past, the present and the future
Sarah Caraher, Lander Victor and Mairead Atcheson
INORE, the International Network on Offshore Renewable Energy, emerged from the “PhD pool on Offshore Renewable Energy” at the Norwegian Centre for Renewable Energy in 2006. We began with four young researchers who felt the need for creating and sustaining an active community from different countries, disciplines and research areas. Three years on and INORE has grown into a network of over 250 like-minded young researchers who share a common aim - working together towards the advancement of the offshore renewable energy.
Our network began with a strong engineering influence but has gradually evolved and now includes members from disciplines such as ecology, socio-economics and policy. We feel this reflects the need for understanding and communication between the many disciplines involved in the development of this hugely challenging industry. Bringing so many people with varied expertise and areas of interest proves to be the main part of INORE’s appeal and hey, it is also great fun! With new buddies and collaborations born from each event, the result of these bonds should and will bring huge benefits in the industry.
INORE’s actions focus on bringing large groups researchers together through two annual events: our one day workshop, the last one which took place in 2009 before the 8th European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference in Uppsala, Sweden and the main event, a four day symposium that was held outside Ghent, Belgium. Both events had 60 participants, doubling the amount at last year’s events. This reflects both the growth of INORE and, more importantly, the increase in early stage researchers within offshore renewable energy.
The symposium locations change every year, the location is chosen so that it is close to one committee members institute, and also within reasonable travel distance for the majority of participants. Belgium proved to be an excellent venue this year, providing an ideal location in the Flemish Ardennes, valued assistance from Ghent University, superb food, palatable beer and of a fantastic array of keynote speakers within easy travelling distance.
Publication OES-IA Executive Committe
Design LNEG
Printing CLIO - Artes Gráficas
Acting Editor OES-IA
Circulation 750 copies
ISBN 1645-7811
OES-IA ReportsAgenda Events on Ocean Energy
ocEAn EnErgy tEchnology SUrvEyS
Teresa Pontes
LNEG, Portugal
In 2009 the OES-IA report Ocean Energy: Global Technology Development Status was published at our website (http://www.iea-oceans.org/publications/). This is a comprehensive report covering the different ocean energy technologies that convert the various ocean energy sources into useable energy, these sources being tidal energy which results from the gravitational fields of the moon and the sun; thermal energy (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion or OTEC), resulting directly from solar radiation; marine currents, caused by thermal and salinity differences in addition to tidal effects; ocean waves, generated by the action of the winds blowing over the ocean surface, and salinity gradient resulting from the mixture of fresh water with saltwater where rivers discharge into the sea. Differently from most of the previous review reports, this one provides a classification of ocean energy converting systems according to their power-take-off system; a useful analysis of the maturity of the ocean energy converting systems is also presented for each technology. For each device a short description is included; an extensive list of more than 220 references is presented. This report follows the previous OES-IA Executive Committee review reports published in 2003 (Status and Research and Priorities. Wave and Marine Current Energy) and in 2006 (Review and analysis of ocean energy systems. Development and supporting policies), which are also available at the OES-IA website. It should be noticed that the 2008 OES-IA Annual Report includes a review of each of the above five ocean energy technologies.Finally, we should bring your attention to an online living database on ocean energy technologies (Marine and Hydrokinetic Technology Database) developed by the USA Department of Energy (DoE); it is available athttp://www1.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/hydrokinetic/default.aspx.
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
AwAtEA 4th Annual conference19-20 April 2010Welllington, New Zealandhttp://www.awatea.org.nz/2010conference.html
2010 offshore technology conference3-6 May 2010Houston, Texas, USAhttp://otcnet.org/2010/index.html
ocean Energy 6-7 May 2010Brussels, Belgiumhttp://www2.greenpowerconferences.co.uk/
All-Energy 2010 conference19-20 May 2010Aberdeen, Scotland, UKhttp:://www.all-energy.co.uk
omAE 20106-10 June 2010Shangai, China http://www.omae2010.com/
Energyocean International8-10 June 2010Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USAhttp://www.energyocean.com/2010/
world ocean council conferenceSustainable Energy Summit15-17 June 2010Belfast, UKhttp://www.oceancouncil.org/site/events.php
ISopE 201020-26 June 2010Beijing, Chinahttp://www.isope.org/
renewable Energy conference 201027 June – 2 July 2010Yokohama, Japanhttp://www.re2010.org/
Energyocean pacific October 5 – 6 2010Portland Oregon USAhttp://www.oregonwave.org/ IcoE 2010International conference no ocean Energy6-8 October 2010Bilbao, Spainhttp://www.icoe2010bilbao.com
rElAtEd lInkS
International Energy AgencyInformation on the currently active IEA Implementing Agreements.http://www.iea.org/textbase/techno/index.asp
European ocean Energy AssociationThe EU-OEA unites the broad interests of the European ocean energy industry into a single, focused and independent voice. Together with its regional and industry partners, the EU-OEA and its members address issues of relevance to the industry with decision-makers including regulators, legislators, and policymakers.http://www.eu-oea.com
how to pArtIcIpAtE In thE oES-IAIf your country has not signed the Implementing Agreement, contact the Executive Committee Chairperson who will provide you with information on how to proceed. If your country has signed the Implementing Agreement contact the Executive Committee member from your country or the Operating Agent of the Task(s) you are interested in.The OES-IA Website: http://www.iea-oceans.org
Executive committee
Chair John Huckerby [email protected]
Vice-ChairsJochen [email protected]
Jose Luis [email protected]
Secretary Ana Brito e Melo [email protected]
operating Agents
AnnEX I: Review, exchange and dissemination of information on OESLNEGContact: Teresa Pontes [email protected]
AnnEX II: Development of recommended practices for testing and evaluating OESRambollContact: Kim Nielsen [email protected]
AnnEX III: Integration of ocean energy plants into electrical gridsPowertech Labs Contact: Gouri [email protected]
AnnEX Iv: Assessment of environmental effects and monitoring efforts for oceanwave, tidal, and current energy systemsUnited States Department of Energy (DoE)Contact: Alejandro [email protected]