Facts
Date:
2014-03-20T13:00:00
Location:
Edinburgh
Presenter:
Henry Jeffrey, Senior Research Fellow for Policy and Innovation, University of Edinburgh
Conference:
SKF Ocean Energy technology Day
Summary
The European Commission FP7 Energy project for the “Optimal Design Tools for Ocean Arrays” (DTOcean) was launched in 2013 with a value of over €6 million. The Policy and Innovation Group of the University of Edinburgh, led the proposal and will lead the consortium of 18 international partners, from 11 countries with the only non-European partner being from a national renewables laboratory in the USA. Partners are from research institutes, supply chain and project developers (Vattenfall, Iberdrola and Deme). DTOcean will take a whole system approach in which the effective array design tools necessary aims to provide the overall information and knowledge required to allow array project developers and decision makers to make fully informed choices. It is crucial to understand the importance of different parameters on the global performance of ocean energy arrays because the main driver for their development will be the cost of energy. The key focus areas of hydrodynamic array layout, electrical system architecture, moorings and foundations, lifecycle logistics and system control and operations have been identified as the areas which must be addressed in order for the sector to reach commercialisation through array deployment.
