CIVIELE CIVIELE
Waterbouw
TECHNIEK TECHNIEK
European scalable complementary offshore renewable energy sources The Energy Transition has proven a paradigm shift in both the energy sectors, and shift in industrial developments. With ambitious targets for near carbon neutral societies, and the need to create a Climate Change future proof society, the stressors in societies are increased. From balancing land requirements for food, transport, housing, energy, etc to anticipating and strengthening the coastal frontlines. The Netherlands, have a long history in successfully conquering the Seas, but now new target will lead us to rethink the way forwards. Marine renewables (floating wind, wave energy, tidal energy) have been poised to contribute to the goals set by the Netherlands and the European Community; however, their benefits are not limited only to the power sector. Industry shifting means that the Dutch industrial sector can utilise experience, transform jobs and create new industries with global impact. Marine
renewables are expected to see a major increase in the next years with capacities expected >350 GW only in European waters. These technologies are larger and more challenging in scale, to design, operate and maintain. Besides the obvious power production capabilities these technologies will have major effects on the wave resources, subsequently on the coastal impacts. Therefore, a key step will be thorough quantification of both the power resource at locations of interest, and the impacts of these devices on the natural environment. The Marine Renewable Energie Lab, at the Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology has developed a framework to help design, deploy, operate and understand the impacts by marine renewables. In this instance, wave energy converters have been explored both their power and environmental contributions. Wave energy converters are large structures that can weigh 85,000-120,000 Kg, with large displacements. The Netherlands, a long-exposed coastline with moderate exposed wave energy resource (3 - 12 kW/m). In addition, WEC converters can have significant higher energy packing density at 20 - 50 MW/Km2. This combination allows wave energy converters to achieve good power production, with reduced survivability hazards. This can lead to improved energy costs, but more importantly to the increase of energy security. Identifying the most promising regions/locations for the further exploitation of wave energy requires us to look closely at the potential.
Range of Levelised Cost of Electricity (LCoE) (€/MWh) for optimally regionally adapted WECs as they are deployed in the North Sea
10 | 2025 | Waterbouw
George Lavidas, TU Delft