How does the Wave Energy Prize calculate ACE?; Featured Press Coverage; Question of the Month
Water Power Technologies Office
August 25, 2016
minute read time
Table of Contents
- How does the Wave Energy Prize calculate ACE?
- Featured Press Coverage
- Question of the Month
How does the Wave Energy Prize calculate ACE?
FROM AUGUST, 2016: Waveswing America, one of the nine remaining Finalist Teams competing in the Wave Energy Prize, prepares to test its proposed wave-energy converter (WEC) device inside the U.S. Navy's Maneuvering and Seekeaping (MASK) Basin at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division in West Bethesda, Md.
The goal of the Wave Energy Prize is to stimulate the development of innovative WECs that have the prospect for becoming commercially competitive with other forms of electricity generation. Specifically, the Prize seeks to double the state-of-the-art performance of WECs. As mentioned in a previous blog, when comparing the economic attractiveness of power generating technologies, levelized cost of energy (LCOE) is a common metric frequently used in the power generation sector. LCOE is the ultimate expression of the ratio between effort (cost) to benefit (energy generated).
Unfortunately, LCOE cannot be used in the Wave Energy Prize because the data needed to determine LCOE are either not available or are very unreliable at low Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs), and the Wave Energy Prize is fundamentally expecting to be operating with WEC technologies that are at low TRLs.
With support from Sandia National Laboratories and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the Prize team derived a new metric to determine effectiveness of low TRL concepts that is a modification of existing WEC metrics. Importantly, this metric allows for robust analysis of innovative WEC devices using novel methods and materials. ACE is a benefit to cost ratio, and is a proxy for LCOE, appropriate for comparing low TRL WEC designs. MORE »
Featured Press Clip
DOE to fund test facility for U.S. waters as Wave Energy Prize competition continues
Hydro World, Tue 02 Aug 2016
Question of the Month
Q: What happens if a team’s 1/20th-scale WEC device breaks during testing?
A: If a team’s 1/20th-scale WEC prototype breaks during testing, the team will have every opportunity to repair the device and continue testing during its assigned week in the MASK Basin. If the device cannot be repaired and sufficient data has not been recorded to demonstrate achievement of the ACE threshold, the team will not be eligible to win a monetary prize.