OES Annual Report 2012 - Ocean Energy Systems

51
04 / COUNTRY REPORTS
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Michael Reed
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
INTRODUCTION
In 2012 the U.S. ocean energy industry accomplished several significant achievements, including: multiple
open water deployments, advancements in infrastructure development, initial grid connectivity, landmark
power purchase agreements (PPA), and milestones in permitting and licensing. The open water deployments
have provided valuable baseline performance data and in-water test experience to inform future design
improvements. Furthermore, this was the first year developers (Verdant Power, Ocean Renewable Power
Company, and Ocean Power Technologies) received hydrokinetic licenses issued by the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC), which resulted in the development of 5.55 MW of demonstration projects.
Overall, there were approximately 85 active FERC-issued hydrokinetic preliminary permits in 2012, totalling
roughly 14.8 GW. Throughout 2012 technology development progressed with the addition of an ocean
energy technical data exchange forum (Annex V) to the International Energy Agency’s Ocean Energy
Systems – Implementing Agreement. Additionally, the device cost reference model efforts continued and
a new collaborative initiative to develop an open source numerical modeling package (WECSim) began.
The WECSim initiative will simulate power production for multiple wave energy converter architectures and
is a collaborative effort among the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories,
and other code developers. Additionally, resource assessments for ocean current, river current, and ocean
thermal progressed and will be complete during late 2012 and early 2013. Environmental research and
information sharing continued with the launch of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Tethys database and
the extension of Annex IV activities, with the final report and data to be publicly released in 2013. The
outlook for 2013 is optimistic, with further testing of a number of devices planned and some projects
expanding to arrays and commercial-scale devices.
OCEAN ENERGY POLICY
Strategy and National Targets
This mission of the DOE Water Power Program is to research, test, evaluate, develop and demonstrate
innovative technologies capable of generating renewable, environmentally responsible and cost-effective
electricity from water resources. Pursuant to that mission, the Program is currently undertaking the
necessary analysis to assess the opportunities associated with tapping ocean energy resources. The
completion of significant advanced assessments of U.S. wave and tidal energy resources has resulted in
a programmatic decision to focus technology development efforts largely on the abundant national wave
energy resource. Based on these analyses, the Program has established a national marine and hydrokinetic
(MHK) deployment goal of 23 GW by 2030.
The strategy of the Water Power Program is broken down into four major thrust areas:
1. Technology Advancement
2. Testing Infrastructure and Instrumentation Development
3. Resource Characterization
4. Market Barrier Identification and Removal
The 2012 DOE MHK portfolio consisted of 115 projects and represented a total Program investment of $34
million. Most of the MHK funding (80%) was directed toward major thrust areas 1 and 2.