IS WAVE ENERGY THE FUTURE?
Did you know that 70% of the world's surface is water? The oceans turn out to be a large reserve of energy due to the storage of solar and gravitational energy, which results from the movement of countless volume of water. This means that if we were able to exploit efficiently this resource, we could have an unlimited energy supply!
The wave energy industry is a relatively new sector and so the technologies are yet quite immature. There are many different devices trying to become feasible in a hostile environment, the sea. This is why we have wanted to analyse the economic and technical challenges and opportunities to make wave energy more competitive.
This project consists of a critical review about the different factors that interact in a wave energy project such as determining the wave resource itself, the performance of the devices, and the direct and indirect costs involved. Once the energy available is evaluated for the different sites, the levelised cost of energy can be calculated, defining a cost per kWh depending on the site. A sensitivity analysis can then be carried out, and the principal costs of the project identified, stating reduction opportunities that could make wave energy more viable.
This project was undertaken as part of a course from the MSc in Sustainable Engineering, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, at the University of Strathclyde.
The wave energy industry is a relatively new sector and so the technologies are yet quite immature. There are many different devices trying to become feasible in a hostile environment, the sea. This is why we have wanted to analyse the economic and technical challenges and opportunities to make wave energy more competitive.
This project consists of a critical review about the different factors that interact in a wave energy project such as determining the wave resource itself, the performance of the devices, and the direct and indirect costs involved. Once the energy available is evaluated for the different sites, the levelised cost of energy can be calculated, defining a cost per kWh depending on the site. A sensitivity analysis can then be carried out, and the principal costs of the project identified, stating reduction opportunities that could make wave energy more viable.
This project was undertaken as part of a course from the MSc in Sustainable Engineering, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, at the University of Strathclyde.
