The Energy Department today announced $10 million to test prototypes designed to generate clean, renewable electricity from ocean waves and help diversify America’s energy portfolio. The Energy Department-supported demonstrations at the U.S. Navy’s wave energy test site off Hawaii’s island of Oahu will help develop reliable wave energy options and collect important performance and cost data for wave energy conversion (WEC) devices.
The Energy Department plans to test two WEC devices at depths of 60 and 80 meters at the open-water site offshore from Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe Bay. These projects will enable the Energy Department to evaluate technology performance, reliability and cost of energy to achieve cost-competitive wave energy deployments in the future.
The two-phase demonstration projects will focus on WEC devices in the late stages of technology development–those ready to be tested at close to full-scale in the open-ocean environment. The first phase of this funding opportunity will optimize designs and plan for the deployment and testing of WEC systems. The second phase will support permitting, fabrication, deployment, retrieval, and decommissioning of these systems after 12 months of testing and data collection.
The Water Program is seeking applications from wave energy conversion technology developers that are in advanced stages of technology development and are prepared to design, build and test technology at close to full-scale in the ocean environment. This FOA seeks to deploy two (2) wave energy converter (WEC) systems, one at each of the Department of Navy’s Wave Energy Test Site (WETS) berths located at 60 meters and 80 meters depths in Kaneohe, HI for testing, evaluation and comparison of performance, reliability and levelized cost of energy (LCOE).
This effort will provide the industry with the opportunity to test the most current and effective technology archetypes. Project results will be used to inform the Program's research and development portfolio planning, provide data for validating design and cost models and tools, and identify deployment issues that can be addressed through government action.
Through this initiative, DOE and the Navy will collect important performance and cost data, while supporting the Department of Defense's renewable energy goals. A comprehensive set of measurements will be taken over the duration of the deployment to enable quantitative comparisons of WEC system performance and reliability. Metrics of success include annual energy production, availability, reliability, operations and maintenance cost, and overall LCOE.
The funding opportunity will be conducted in two budget periods. During Budget Period I, the recipient will plan and design the WEC system and start necessary permitting and DOE’s National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process for demonstration at WETS. Budget Period II activities will include final permitting, fabrication, deployment and testing of the WEC system for approximately 12 months at the Navy’s WETS.
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