ORE Catapult, Frazer-Nash to reduce tidal and wave projects risks

The Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult and Frazer-Nash Consultancy have developed a new approach to assessing and reducing uncertainty associated with energy yield assessment for wave and tidal energy projects.

The aim of this new approach is to make projects more attractive to investors by helping reduce the risks associated with the projects’ development.

According to ORE Catapult, there hasn’t been any standardised methodology or common terminology for energy yield and uncertainty assessments until now.

The outputs from this project are expected to bring following benefits to the industry:

• Increased understanding amongst project developers of the uncertainties (and therefore risks) associated with projects to help them prioritise uncertainty-reducing activities,
• Helping project financiers to understand the importance and potential scale of uncertainties and inform discussions on financial risk,
• Enabling researchers to prioritise research activities to help reduce these risks.

Ralph Torr, Renewable Technology Engineer for ORE Catapult, said: “The perceived level of risk associated with wave and tidal energy projects is high. Being able to more accurately determine the energy output of a potential wave or tidal energy project is a key part of reducing this risk and is central to optimised project design and reducing the costs of financing. This project provides a common language and a standardised approach to assessing and reducing uncertainty.”

The three guidance documents and the uncertainty management tool can be accessed on ORE Catapult’s website.

Neil Adams, Group Leader at Frazer-Nash, said: “We have developed a structured guidance document and intuitive tool to determine the uncertainty on energy yield simply and systematically. It helps identify key uncertainties and allows projects to be compared on a like-for-like basis. This will assist project developers and financiers decide where to invest their capital.”

ORE Catapult is the UK’s technology innovation and research centre for offshore wind, wave and tidal energy.

Frazer-Nash Consultancy provides multidisciplinary engineering and technical services to government and industry worldwide.

Image: ORE Catapult/Illustration