Engineering topics

LiVecchi, Al

Publications and source records attributed to LiVecchi, Al.

7 records

DOE OSTI2019

Powering the Blue Economy: Exploring Opportunities for Marine Renewable Energy in Various Maritime

The blue economy is an emerging sector that will require energy to allow many scientific and commercial endeavors to reach their potential. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office seeks to understand marine and coastal opportunities for which marine energy could fulfill those energy needs. This report documents the material gathered during a year-long fact-finding effort engaging users and developers, through literature review, workshops, interviews, and national lab analyses, as well as a Request for Information process. Each market was assessed by a set of common analyses: opportunity summary; application description and power requirements; market description, power options, and geographic relevance; marine energy potential value proposition; and path forward including research and development needs and potential partners. The major finding is that there are more markets with potential than anticipated, both for Power at Sea (including ocean observation and navigation, underwater vehicle charging, marine aquaculture, marine algae, and seawater mining), and Resilient Coastal Communities (including desalination, coastal resiliency and disaster recovery, and community-scale isolated power systems). The enabling attributes of marine energy resources include that they are abundant, geographically diverse, energy dense, predictable, and complementary to other energy sources. This report can help direct analysis and research and development efforts by government, scientists, developers, and other stakeholders to more deeply understand and meet specific technical and economic requirements to power emerging opportunities in the blue economy.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

DOE OSTI2018

Maritime Renewable Energy Markets: Power from the Sea

Marine renewable energy (MRE) is in the early stages of contributing to the energy portfolios of the US and many other nations around the world. Although many MRE developers are designing devices that will harvest energy to contribute to the electrical grid from waves, tides, and ocean currents, a number of other promising maritime markets could be supplied with MRE power at sea. These maritime markets are often less price sensitive than utility-scale electricity markets and can handle some degree of intermittency. Some of the promising maritime markets that could benefit from co-located power generation include ocean observation nodes, underwater recharge of autonomous vehicles, desalination of seawater for remote coastal areas, offshore aquaculture, shoreline protection and electricity generation, providing electricity and freshwater following coastal emergencies, providing power to islanded and isolated communities, powering and cooling nearshore of underwater data centers, recharging of electric surface vessels, and personal charging of electronics. Pairing of MRE power generation with these and other maritime markets is in the early stages, but the potential for synergy and growth of MRE coupled to these markets is promising.

Marine renewable energy↗

DOE OSTI2016

A Review of the Environmental Impacts for Marine and Hydrokinetic Projects to Inform Regulatory Permitting: Summary Findings from the 2015 Workshop on Marine and Hydrokinetic Technologies, Washington, D.C.

In 2014 and 2015, the U.S. Department of Energy initiated efforts to develop and implement technology- and application-focused marine and hydrokinetic (MHK) workshops to share the global experience and knowledge base on evolving MHK technologies, observed and not-observed impacts, monitoring and measurement methods, and regulatory needs. The resulting MHK Regulator Workshops engaged resource managers and other decision makers at key regulatory organizations, scientists, researchers, facilitators, and technical experts and provided an opportunity to examine the risks of single-device and small-scale deployments, explore what can be learned and observed from single devices and small-scale arrays, and consider requirements for projects at varying scales of deployment. Experts and stakeholders identified key remaining information gaps. Initial discussions focused on differentiating between monitoring required for single or small-scale deployments and MHK impact research that, although important, goes beyond what is feasible or should be needed to meet specific project regulatory requirements but is appropriate for broader research and development. Four areas of identified potential environmental impacts provided the focus for the workshop: acoustic output impacts, electromagnetic field (EMF) emissions, physical interactions, and environmental effects of MHK energy development on the physical environment. Discussions also focused on the regulatory process and experience, adaptive management, industry drivers, and lessons that can be learned from the wind energy industry. The discussion was set in the context of the types of MHK technologies that are currently proposed or planned in the United States. All presentations and the following discussions are summarized in this document.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗

DOE OSTI2016

Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center

In 2008, the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Wind and Water Power Program issued a funding opportunity announcement to establish university-led National Marine Renewable Energy Centers. Oregon State University and the University of Washington combined their capabilities in wave and tidal energy to establish the Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center, or NNMREC. NNMREC’s scope included research and testing in the following topic areas: • Advanced Wave Forecasting Technologies; • Device and Array Optimization; • Integrated and Standardized Test Facility Development; • Investigate the Compatibility of Marine Energy Technologies with Environment, Fisheries and other Marine Resources; • Increased Reliability and Survivability of Marine Energy Systems; • Collaboration/Optimization with Marine Renewable and Other Renewable Energy Resources. To support the last topic, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) was brought onto the team, particularly to assist with testing protocols, grid integration, and testing instrumentation. NNMREC’s mission is to facilitate the development of marine energy technology, to inform regulatory and policy decisions, and to close key gaps in scientific understanding with a focus on workforce development. In this, NNMREC achieves DOE’s goals and objectives and remains aligned with the research and educational mission of universities. In 2012, DOE provided NNMREC an opportunity to propose an additional effort to begin work on a utility scale, grid connected wave energy test facility. That project, initially referred to as the Pacific Marine Energy Center, is now referred to as the Pacific Marine Energy Center South Energy Test Site (PMEC-SETS) and involves work directly toward establishing the facility, which will be in Newport Oregon, as well as supporting instrumentation for wave energy converter testing. This report contains a breakdown per subtask of the funded project. Under each subtask, the following are presented and discussed where appropriate: the initial objective or hypothesis; an overview of accomplishments and approaches used; any problems encountered or departures from planned methodology over the life of the project; impacts of the problems or rescoping of the project; how accomplishments compared with original project goals; and deliverables under the subtasks. Products and models developed under the award are also included.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗

DOE OSTI2016

Collaboration on OPT Design for Generating Electrical Power from Ocean Waves. Cooperative Research and Development Final Report, CRADA Number CRD-14-542

In the proposed project, Ocean Power Technologies Corporation (OPT) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will collaboratively investigate the power output and loads associated with an asymmetric float previously investigated and designed by OPT, but will extend the analysis to include a compliant mooring.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗

DOE OSTI2015

NREL and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) Support of Ocean Renewable Power Company's TidGen™ Power System Technology Readiness Advancement Initiative Project

This document summarizes the tasks identified for National Laboratory technical support of Ocean Renewable Power Corporation (ORPC) DOE grant awarded under the FY10 Industry Solicitation DE-FOA-0000293: Technology Readiness Advancement Initiative. The system ORPC will deploy in Cobscook Bay, ME is known as the TidGen™ Power System. The Turbine Generator Unit (TGU) each have a rated capacity of 150 to 175 kW, and they are mounted on bottom support frames and connected to an onshore substation using an underwater power and control cable. This system is designed for tidal energy applications in water depths from 60 to 150 feet. In funding provided separately by DOE, National Laboratory partners NREL and SNL will provide in-kind resources and technical expertise to help ensure that industry projects meet DOE WWPP (Wind and Water Power Program) objectives by reducing risk to these high value projects.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2010

Marine & hydrokinetic technology development.

The Wind and Water Power Program supports the development of marine and hydrokinetic devices, which capture energy from waves, tides, ocean currents, the natural flow of water in rivers, and marine thermal gradients, without building new dams or diversions. The program works closely with industry and the Department of Energy's national laboratories to advance the development and testing of marine and hydrokinetic devices. In 2008, the program funded projects to develop and test point absorber, oscillating wave column, and tidal turbine technologies. The program also funds component design, such as techniques for manufacturing and installing coldwater pipes critical for ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) systems. Rigorous device testing is necessary to validate and optimize prototypes before beginning full-scale demonstration and deployment. The program supports device testing by providing technology developers with information on testing facilities. Technology developers require access to facilities capable of simulating open-water conditions in order to refine and validate device operability. The program has identified more than 20 tank testing operators in the United States with capabilities suited to the marine and hydrokinetic technology industry. This information is available to the public in the program's Hydrodynamic Testing Facilities Database. The program also supports the development of open-water, grid-connected testing facilities, as well as resource assessments that will improve simulations done in dry-dock and closed-water testing facilities. The program has established two university-led National Marine Renewable Energy Centers to be used for device testing. These centers are located on coasts and will have open-water testing berths, allowing researchers to investigate marine and estuary conditions. Optimal array design, development, modeling and testing are needed to maximize efficiency and electricity generation at marine and hydrokinetic power plants while mitigating nearby and distant impacts. Activities may include laboratory and computational modeling of mooring design or research on device spacing. The geographies, resources, technologies, and even nomenclature of the U.S. marine and hydrokinetic technology industry have yet to be fully understood or defined. The program characterizes and assesses marine and hydrokinetic devices, and then organizes the collected information into a comprehensive and searchable Web-based database, the Marine and Hydrokinetic Technology Database. The database, which reflects intergovernmental and international collaboration, provides industry with one of the most comprehensive and up-to-date public resources on marine and hydrokinetic devices.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗