Investor Presentaiton
Energies 2019, 12, 3658
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project fabrication and installation, operation and maintenance, and decommissioning, respectively.
Table 2 shows a summary of the project stages.
Table 2. Stages of ocean renewable energy project development.
Project Stage
Early concept
In planning
Pre-deployment
Operational
Decommissioned
Dormant
Description
The technology is in the early stage of development. The basic principles are observed, and
analytical formulations, numerical simulations, and laboratory-scale experimental tests are
performed at this stage. (Stages 0, 1, and 2 based on [179]).
The technology is being used in medium- or large-scale experimental tests in a realistic
working environment or in an open sea. The represents preparation for authorized consent.
(Stage 3 based on [179]).
Consent is authorized by the consent authority and the company or technology developers
perform activities such as site preparation, fabrication, and installation. (Stage 4
based on [179]).
The device is fully operational. In this paper, the operational system can even be connected
to a local electrical grid or can provide energy for an isolated center of consumption, such
as a marine lighthouse.
Devices that have been removed from the water after being operational for a certain period.
Projects that had site permission or authorized consent or were in the permitting process
but were later abandoned.
Geographical distribution of the projects
Figure 10a,b shows the geographical distribution of the projects over approximately 40 countries.
It can be seen that, in terms of quantity, Europe has the largest contribution (about 60.66%), followed by
North America, Asia, Oceania, Africa, Central America and the Caribbean, and South America with
17.10%, 13.35%, 5.62%, 1.64%, 0.94%, and 0.7%, respectively. As Figure 10b illustrates, the largest
number of projects belong to the wave and current energy sector, and these are mostly located in
Europe. Note that in this sector, the current energy projects include technologies that are utilized to
harness current energy, independent of its type, including ocean and tidal currents.
the energy
It is observed that although the ocean thermal gradient has the largest potential among
resources, there is a very low interest in harnessing such energy. This may be due to the technical
complexities and high capital cost that decelerate the development process of OTEC technology [180].
Nevertheless, it can be inferred that wave and current energy are considered to be more promising
energy resources than others.
Figure 11 illustrates a summary of the global status of ocean renewable energy projects.
Approximately half of the projects are in the "planning" and "pre-deployment" stages, and these
projects are dominated by the current and wave energy and mostly located in Europe. This means
that there will be a significant evolution in ORE deployment in the next 5 years. Europe, Asia,
North America, and Africa are the regions with operational projects. Asia may lead the future in
OTEC technology having a larger number of "planning" and "pre-deployment" projects compared
with other regions. These projects are mostly located on the eastern coast of Asia. Tidal range energy
has been harnessed commercially since 1966 (Rance River north-western France); however, to date,
only a handful of operational projects have been deployed. On the other hand, wave and current
energy projects, which are operational or at an earlier stage of development, represent about 65% of
all projects. This implies that tidal range technology has not drawn as much serious developmental
interest as wave and current technologies. This may be due to the high cost and ecological impacts of
such technology [181].View entire presentation