Resource Characterization

Project Purpose 

The Model Validation and Site Characterization for Early Deployment MHK Sites and Establishment of Classification Schemes project (hereafter, the Resource Characterization project) is designed to quantify and classify the physical conditions of wave and tidal resources, to provide resource and device classification schemes that reduce design costs and generation uncertainty, and to provide the data necessary for informed siting decisions.

Project Description

The Resource Characterization project, which began in 2016, was motivated by a recognition that detailed resource data is critical to the success of the marine energy industry. It brings together the resources and expertise of three national labs, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), to advance the state-of-the-art in tidal and wave energy resource characterization methods and products.

Over its first three years this project has: 1) completed high-resolution, long-term regional wave hindcasts for the U.S. west coast, east coast, and Alaska, 2) completed high-resolution tidal models of five top-ranking tidal energy sites, 3) completed resource measurements following International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) technical specifications at four wave energy sites and four tidal energy sites, and 4) developed resource and device classification schemes. As the project moves toward completion the team will: complete high-resolution modelling for all U.S. coastal waters, complete resource measurements at top-ranking sites, refine the national resource assessments, introduce classification schemes to the IEC standards body and propose their incorporation in relevant technical specifications, and upgrade the Marine and Hydrokinetic (MHK) Atlas to make the project’s data public and accessible.

Project Methods

The project is organized around four primary activity areas: resource measurements, resource modelling, resource characterization, and resource and device classification. Each lab leads one activity area and NREL serves as the lead for the project. All of these activities are conducted with careful attention to best practices and methods recommended by the International Electrotechnical Commission’s (IEC) Technical Committee (TC) 114. The project also holds quarterly calls with a steering committee of international experts and U.S. industry representatives to solicit guidance on key project decisions, and to keep the community informed on project progress.

Key Findings/Applications

The primary outputs of this project are public resource measurement data, public model data, and publications. The publications include journal papers and technical reports on the topics of classification, model validation, resource measurements, and regional resource characterization and assessment. Public data products will continue to be made available on the MHK Data Repository, via the MHK Atlas, and wave measurement data is available on cdip.ucsd.edu servers. The project is also making the full model datasets available via cloud service providers.

These data and tools can be used for: device design processes for technology developers, economic assessments for project developers, energy assessments (power supply and energy portfolio diversification) for regional planners and policy makers, operational reliability and economic assessments for utilities and investors, and baseline data for environmental impacts studies needed by regulatory agencies.