Report: Optimize investments by pairing wind, wave energy offshore

Combining wind and wave power stations in offshore projects increases the value of energy generated while also achieving some cost savings, according to a new report from a Stanford University researcher.

Eric Stoutenburg, a PhD. student in the school's Atmosphere Energy program, plans to present his initial findings at the American Geophysical Union's fall meeting in San Francisco this week. 

Stoutenburg told the Cleantech Group that the findings show that wave energy developers could take some of the financial risk out of their projects by coordinating with wind developers. Although an added energy generation component would add cost to the project, there would also be significant savings, he said.

"If wave energy wants to get off the ground, it might have better potential to develop in the shadow of an offshore wind plant," he said.

Developers pay for offshore projects based on the area covered. Dual energy-generating methods would generate more energy per square kilometer, improving the project cost, Stoutenburg said.

Additionally, the two power sources could share transmission cables, which are an expensive element. The plant operators would see savings in operations and maintenance, which can be costly for offshore projects that have limited accessibility, he said.

However, even more notable than cost savings is the value of the energy generated, he said.

Stoutenburg said he was surprised to learn that wind and wave power are not strongly correlated, which means that they don't generate power at the same time, with the exception of during storms.

That means a wind-wave energy project could deliver a consistent power supply, which is more valuable to utilities because it doesn't stress the electricity grid as much as sudden surges of energy generation, Stoutenburg said. Also, there are fewer hours in which no power is generated, he said.

Additionally, wave energy can be forecast up to 48 hours in advance, giving utilities time to predict generating capacity further in advance and adjust loads, he said. The complaints about wind power include that it's intermittent and unpredictable (see Riding the marine power wave with Roger Bedard).

Stoutenburg made the conclusions after studying buoy data from the Pacific Ocean off the coast of northern California and Oregon. Further research is planned for the Oregon and Washington coasts.

Stoutenburg also plans to study the best way to combine energy generation capacity between wind and wave projects to optimize the project cost.

Wave and wind energy seem to be a natural pairing, but the technology differs greatly.

Fairfield, Conn.-based General Electric (NYSE: GE) and Munich-based Siemens (NYSE: SI), big players in the wind sector, have made investments in wave power, with GE investing $16 million in Pelamis Wave Power (formerly known as Ocean Power Delivery) and Siemens purchasing Wavegen (see Commercial Wavegen marine energy plant to be built in Spain).

Vancouver, British Columbia-based Finavera Renewables (TSX:FVR) planned to develop wind and wave projects separately but redirected its strategy to focus on wind after its proposed wave-power project off the California coast was rejected by the state Public Utilities Commission for not being an economical source of power (see Israel's SDE plans 100MW of wave energy for Africa and 100 MW California wave project gets prelim. approval).

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