Abstract
The IEA Ocean Energy Systems 2008 Annual Report reviews the progress of activities in the Implementing Agreement on Ocean Energy Systems (IEA-OES) under the auspices of the International Energy Agency (IEA) during the year 2008.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) was established as an autonomous body within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1974, to implement an international energy programme and act as policy advisor to countries on energy, including renewable energy. Today the IEA has 28 member countries. The IEA provides a framework for 42 international collaborative energy research, development and demonstration projects known as Energy Technology Agreements. These Implementing Agreements were created to encourage collaborative efforts to meet the main challenges of energy policies: ensuring energy security and addressing climate change issues in a cost-effective way.
The IEA Ocean Energy Systems Implementing Agreement (IEA-OES) is a collaborative venture among various member countries and the European Commission. As of December 2008, those members are Portugal, Denmark, United Kingdom, Japan, Ireland, the European Commission, Canada, the United States of America, Belgium, Germany, Norway, Mexico, Spain, Italy, New Zealand and Sweden, ordered by sequence of joining the Agreement.
Chapter 1 of this report gives an overview of the IEA-OES: its membership, the Executive Committee (ExCo) meetings, actual collaborative tasks of the work programme (known as Annexes to the IEA-OES programme), events and activities in which the ExCo participated or collaborated, new initiatives during the year and finally the presentation of the financial status of the IEA-OES as of December 2008.
The outcomes of the three collaborative tasks of the IEA-OES (collection and dissemination of information, guidelines for prototype testing and grid integration) are presented in chapter 2, reported by the respective operating agent of each task.
- Under Annex I, collection and dissemination of information, three activities are outlined: a DVD on ocean energy produced during the year with contributions from the members, the launch of the new IEA-OES website and the new report approved as an IEA-OES publication, Ocean Energy: Global Technology Developmental Status.
- Under Annex II, guidelines for prototype testing, task participants started to prepare a report with reference data for wave and tidal stream projects reflecting realistic operating and survival conditions; means to provide comparable estimates of the cost during the development process from conceptual idea to prototype development; and finally considerations on how to measure the output and to present results from projects operating at sea.
- Under Annex III, grid integration, two draft reports were prepared: Report No 3.1.1, Potential opportunities and differences associated with integration of ocean wave and marine current energy plants, in comparison to wind energy, and Report No. 3.1.2, Key features and identification of improvement needs to the existing relevant interconnection guidelines for facilitating integration of ocean energy pilot projects.
A new task was approved in 2008 by the ExCo, Annex IV – Assessment of Environmental Effects and Monitoring Efforts for Ocean Wave, Tidal, and Current Energy Systems. Its aim, description and schedule are also provided in chapter 2 by the respective operating agent.
Under Chapter 3, six articles written by invited experts provide a broad overview of the technological status for harnessing energy from tides, wave, tidal stream, temperature gradient and salinity gradient for generating electricity and producing drinking water.
Finally, under Chapter 4, a summary on national activities is provided by the IEA-OES member countries and representatives from some other potential member countries focusing on i) ocean energy policy, ii) research and development and iii) technology demonstrations during the year.