Storing Energy from the Sea
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5.22.13 |
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Eric Hahn P.E., Civil Engineer Corps officer and
Acquisition Corps member, U.S. Navy |
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In February of this year the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Engineer
Research and Development Center - Coastal Hydraulics Lab (ERDC-CHL)
reported that it had deployed the largest Wave Energy Converter (WEC) in
the US at their Field Research Facility in Duck, NC. According to
their posting, their facility hosted a wave surge actuated device (a
system in the "onshore systems" category of
pendulor devices, as described by the Department of Energy). The
Navy has also tested a wave energy device (more in the general DOE
category of "offshore systems") at
Marine Corps Base Kaneohe
(MCBH). According to a
Navy Times posting of last year, the intent is to provide wave
produced power to Marine Corps Base Kaneohe, HI by 2014.
The suitability of onshore or offshore wave energy conversion systems,
as harvesters of the intermittent wave energy resource, is highly
dependant on the particulars of wave climate, bathymetry, and topography
of the locale with respect to the proximity of facilities power
requirements. Synchronizing the delivery of this energy to the
facilities’ demand is another important consideration germane to the
overall suitability of wave energy conversion systems for a given
locale.
As with other forms of intermittent renewable energy, commercializing
and providing converted wave energy to local shore facilities, like
those at MCBH, requires systems designed to provide the energy to
facilities or a distribution network, as demanded. Enter the
concept of Energy Storage Systems (ESS). Some examples of land-based ESS
are; large scale battery storage, flywheel, and underground Compressed
Air Energy Storage (CAES). Are ESS alternatives necessarily limited to
dry-land based options? No. The hydrostatic pressure and/or thermal
resources of the sea present other technical possibilities.
One technical possibility is locating a CAES off-shore. The
international maritime classification society Det Norske Veritas has
presented this
ESS concept as a complementary system with offshore wind. Pumped
storage as a complementary system with desalination and/or seawater
cooling systems, as introduced in my
July of 2012 posting, is another technical possibility. The presence
of secondary freshwater markets, like the market for
recycled water in San
Diego, represents one of the additional utility revenue streams for
the latter concep
What ESS may be most appropriate for WEC applications you are familiar
with? Why? Please share your thoughts.
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