Applying International Standards for Hydrokinetic Energy Resource Assessments

Abstract:

The extraction of hydrokinetic energy is the conversion of the kinetic energy of moving water into another more useful form of energy, frequently electricity. This water motion may be in the form of waves, tides, ocean currents or river flows. In addition to the development of the technology, the successful extraction of hydrokinetic energy requires a better understanding of physical, environmental and social aspects of the resource and their interactions with the technology. To assist with the development of the hydrokinetic industry as a whole, much work over the past decade has been completed developing international technical standards which can be used by the full range of stakeholders in the hydrokinetic industry. To support the design of projects for tidal energy extraction, a new International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Technical Specification (TS) has recently been published outlining a standardized methodology for performing resource assessments. In addition, presently work is ongoing on producing another TS for performing resource assessments on in-stream river projects. While the specific technology for extracting the energy from tidal and river flows may be similar, the methodologies for performing the respective resource assessments is quite different due to the differing nature of the physical processes involved. This presentation will discuss both the tidal and in-stream river methodologies, highlighting their respective key aspects. In addition, a case study illustrating the use of the published tidal TS will be presented.