£8m Marine Project announced

30th October 2009

£8 million project to help unlock potential of marine energy launched by The Energy Technologies Institute

An £8 million project that will produce tools capable of accurately estimating the energy yield of major wave and tidal stream energy has been approved by the Energy Technologies Institute.

Performance Assessment of Wave and Tidal Array Systems (PerAWaT), a project led by Garrad Hassan, and including EDF Energy, EON, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Oxford, Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Manchester will develop a series of models to predict the performance of wave and tidal stream generator arrays.

ETI Chief Executive Dr David Clarke said: "Although the UK has huge marine potential, investment is being held back by uncertainty about the overall costs involved and the potential returns on investment in wave and tidal technologies. This project will deliver greatly improved modelling tools to provide more accurate forecasting of energy yields and reduce the uncertainty and investment risk faced by project developers when planning large scale wave and tidal energy schemes. It will build on existing knowledge to accelerate the development of sophisticated tools that will become essential as the marine energy industry matures.
No single company or university would be capable of doing this work alone and the ETI has played a key role in bringing together a consortium of experts to deliver this critical work. It is an important step to unlocking the considerable potential of marine energy."

Garrad Hassan Marine Renewables Group Leader Dr Robert Rawlinson-Smith added: "Deployment of large scale arrays of marine energy conversion devices will only occur when project developers have sufficient confidence in the return on their investment.
The ETI core objective of accelerating the commercial deployment of energy technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions will be addressed by this project as it will both establish and validate numerical models capable of predicting the performance of wave & tidal energy converters (WECs and TECs) when operating in arrays.
Once established, the models will enhance levels of confidence in the design of WEC and TEC arrays and therefore accelerate their large scale deployment. By accelerating deployment rates the project will directly address the ETI Marine Programme outcome goal of increasing deployment to 2GW by 2020 and 30GW by 2050.
The PerAWaT consortium brings together universities, utilities and an engineering consultancy which, in combination, will provide the skills and facilities necessary to significantly enhance our understanding of the performance of wave and tidal stream energy farms and encapsulate that understanding in robust validated numerical models for use by the wider industry."

There is currently no software package or validated method of estimating the average annual energy production of a wave or tidal stream energy farm.

Notes to Editors

• The Energy Technologies Institute is a UK based company formed from global industries and the UK Government. The ETI brings together projects and partnerships that create affordable, reliable, clean energy for heat, power and transport.


• The ETI’s six private members are BP, Caterpillar, EDF Energy, E.ON, Rolls-Royce and Shell. The UK Government has committed to match support for four further Members.  The ETI’s public funds are received from the Department for Business Innovation and Skills through the Technology Strategy Board and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). These organisations, together with the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC), are engaged directly in the ETI’s strategy and programme development.


• The ETI will demonstrate technologies, develop knowledge, skills and supply-chains, inform the development of regulation, standards and policy, and so accelerate the deployment of affordable, secure low-carbon energy systems from 2020 to 2050.


• In selecting projects for funding, the ETI aims to achieve a number of key objectives, including demonstrating energy technologies and systems, improving energy usage, efficiency, supply and generation and developing knowledge, and supply chains.


• Garrad Hassan, a GL company, is the world’s largest independent technical and engineering consultancy for renewable energy, serving the onshore and offshore wind, wave, tidal and solar sectors.  From its offices across the globe, it offers a full service to stakeholders at all stages of the renewable energy project lifecycle which includes engineering, consultancy services, industry standard technology products and professional training courses.


• Garrad Hassan has been recognised as the technical authority on wind power for the last 25 years and, more recently, has adapted its expertise to help deliver wave, tidal and solar projects. In August 2009, as a result of a shared need to retain the pace of growth in the renewable energy sector globally, it joined engineering and consulting giant, Germanischer Lloyd, to create a truly single service provider with a reputation for technical excellence. The companies’ complementary offerings combined have cemented their future at the forefront of worldwide developments in the renewable energy industry.

http://www.energytechnologies.co.uk

Contacts:
For further information or to request an interview contact Nigel Richardson, ETI PR Manager on 01509 202084 or 07827 946064