Wave Energy has the Wind in its Sails

Being a sailor, I first looked at wind and wave energy over 25 years ago as a possible career change. More by luck than by smarts, I opted for wind, and the industry has come from near nothing to a globally installed base in excess of 650 GW in the intervening years.

I am now looking at wind and wave once more, but from a different perspective. Wind is now an established industry and has moved from onshore to near shore in water depths of up to 50m. Now, it is moving well beyond that, into water depths in excess of 200m by way of floating foundations, opening up vast new areas of seabed to contribute to the #BlueEconomy.

If this looks challenging, just look at what Equinor is doing off the coast of Scotland where it is building the 88MW #Tampen floating wind project, in 250-300m of water. Yes, the Levelised Cost of Energy (LCOE) is high, but onshore wind was €200/MWh 25 years ago and is now nearer €40-50/MWh. Solar PV has seen even more spectacular declines in LCOE over the last decade. As to #FloatingWind, BNEF projects Capex to fall from €4.9M/MW to €2.2M/MW over the next few years and Equinor projects an installed based of 20GW early in the next decade with an LCOE of around €60, and falling, by 2030.

Back to Wave Energy. The world’s oceans present a vast source of untapped energy, but Wave Energy has as its biggest challenge the survivability of the technology in the challenging environment from where it seeks to harvest energy. This is where previous attempts invariably hit a wall and where wave energy company #Bombora believes it has the solution.

Bombora has developed a novel wave energy converter called the mWave. The technology relies on changes in water pressure, resulting from wave fronts passing overhead. These changes in water pressure actuate membrane-covered, air filled cells safely below the ocean surface which, in turn, drive a unidirectional multi-MW air turbine / power generator. By keeping the technology below the waves, clear from the waves’ destructive slamming forces, Bombora has overcome what previously was the biggest roadblock standing in the way of commercialisation of wave energy. Click here for a 1 minute animation of the technology.

Whilst Bombora's full scale technology demonstrator, now being built in Wales, will rest on the seabed, it can equally be deployed on the semi-submersible platforms now being developed as floating foundations for wind turbines. Combining wind and #WaveEnergy on one platform has several advantages, including;

• A projected 10-20% reduction in LCOE
• An increase in generating capacity per foundation
• Enhanced platform stability on account of Wave absorbing wave energy

If these projections are borne out, then mWave can significantly accelerate the deployment of floating wind. To prove this out, Bombora has partnered with marine technology giant TechnipFMC with the objective to jointly develop, build and demonstrate an integrated wind-and-wave platform that would host a [8-12]MW wind turbine whilst integrating [4-8]MW of mWave in its foundation beneath the waves. Modelling suggests that a target LCOE of €50/MWh by 2030 is realistic and the project has aptly been named ......

#waveenergy #floatingwind #bombora #technipfmc #marineenergy #renewables #renewableenergy #renewableenergysystems #climatechange #energy #innovation #cleanenergy