Abstract
Over the past decades, the global marine energy industry has suffered a number of serious technological and commercial setbacks. To help reduce the risks of industry failures and advance the development of new technologies, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory developed a Marine Energy Risk Management Framework in 2015 [1]; this 2024 publication is a revision to that framework. This risk management framework shall be used on all DOE Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) projects that require system testing in the open water.
By addressing uncertainties, the marine energy risk management framework increases the likelihood of successfully developing marine energy converter technology. It covers projects of any technology readiness level or technology performance level and all risk types (e.g. technological risk, regulatory risk, commercial risk) over the development cycle.
This risk framework is not a substitute for other risk management procedures that may be required for marine operations, such as installations at sea, hoisting and rigging, safe diver operations, and other safety requirements. This risk framework is intended to meet DOE’s risk management expectations for marine energy technology research and development efforts from WPTO. It also provides an overview of other relevant risk management tools and documentation.
This framework emphasizes design and risk reviews as formal gates to ensure risks are managed throughout the technology development cycle. Section 1 presents the recommended technology development cycle, Sections 2 and 3 present tools to assess the technology readiness level and technology performance level of the project, respectively. Section 4 presents a risk management process with design and risk reviews for actively managing risk within the project, and Section 5 presents a detailed description of a risk registry to collect the risk management information into a living document. Section 6 presents a method to analyze system failure modes through a failure modes effects and criticality analysis. Section 7 presents recommendations for collecting and using lessons learned throughout the development process.