Irish developer Sea Power has engaged the services of both Exceedence and Wood for the techno-commercial evaluation of its wave energy system.
The ongoing case study, where Wood is conducting numerical modelling, and Exceedence the financial modelling, is related to the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of the SeaPower Platform, the Irish developer informed.
In order for wave energy array to be commercially viable, the LCOE for the array must be less than the tariff offered by the end user – meaning that if the tariff is 15 c/kWh then the LCOE must be less than that value to be commercially viable, Sea Power said.
According to Sea Power, Wood achieved close agreement between OptiWave/Flexcom and the original LCOE modelling carried out using WEC-SIM, which is based on the previous research performed by 4c Engineering and Sea Power.
When it comes to financial assessment, Sea Power said Exceedence is currently finalizing its evaluation with anticipations of positive results for the SeaPower Platform wave energy converter (WEC).
“The only way to make the most out of a renewable energy project is to carry out comprehensive techno-commercial evaluation. Exceedence Finance software empowers users to complete such evaluation, using Flexcom-based software as an input to WEC performance,” Sea Power states.
Seapower Platform is an attenuator wave energy converter that operates parallel to the wave direction, capturing energy from the relative motion of the two arms in the device as the wave passes them to produce power.
The company has recently secured €267,000 grant through the FOESEA program to design and test a novel mooring configuration for the platform at the SmartBay test site in summer 2018.