Abstract
This document is an output of IEA-OES Task 12, an activity of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Ocean Energy Systems (OES) Technology Collaboration Programme (TCP).
The task is led by the European Commission and delivered by Wave Energy Scotland (WES), the United States Department of Energy (DOE), Tecnalia (Spain) and other representatives of the IEA-OES Executive Committee.
The objectives of Task 12 are:
- Build international consensus on ocean energy technology evaluation
- Guide appropriate and robust activities throughout the technology development process
- Share knowledge and promote collaboration
- Support decision making associated with technology evaluation and funding allocation
Consensus on technology evaluation and technology development activities will bring significant benefits for various stakeholders in the ocean energy sectors:
- Clarity in the expectations from different stakeholders during each stage of development, bringing clearer communication
- Consistency in the use of terminology, and the process to evaluate technology, ensuring a level playing field
- Stakeholders working together to build confidence and transparency in the sector
- Efficient decision-making processes promoting direction of funding to the technologies with highest chances of commercial success
- Technology development process consistent across the world, leading to more international collaboration more globally transferrable technology
The goal of the wider activity is to create a complete and unambiguous process for the development and evaluation of ocean energy technologies throughout all stages of development.
This requires clear definition of:
- Stage Activities – the engineering activities carried out by developers,
- Evaluation Criteria – the parameters used to evaluate achievement
- Evaluation Method – the process used to calculate Criteria
The scope of this document includes technology associated with electricity generation from ocean waves and tidal streams and covers the full technology development from concept creation to commercial readiness. Future Task 12 activity will expand to incorporate other forms of ocean energy. Electricity is likely to be the main output for ocean energy technologies however it is recognised that alternative markets are emerging where other functionality may be desirable. Most of the guidance presented in this report is still valid for such alternative applications, but may require case by case adaption, e.g. for situations where electricity is not the primary output.
The document is intended to be widely applicable to subsystems (e.g. power take-off, mooring and connection systems), devices (wave energy converters and tidal stream energy converters) and arrays of devices.
Task 12 has followed an iterative approach, with each iteration adding more detail to the framework for technology evaluation and guidance of engineering activity, taking input from IEA-OES member countries and their representatives. This work builds upon a series of workshops and collaboration activities, listed in Annex A – Preceding Activity.
View the first edition (2021) of the International Evaluation and Guidance Framework for Ocean Energy Technology here.