Today’s marine energy industry is at an exciting turning point. Companies are testing out their early-stage prototypes—designed to harness the clean energy in ocean and river waves, currents, and tides—in their frst open-water trials. But while such trials are a necessary step toward commercialization, they can come with high costs and risk if the deployments do not go as planned.
Luckily, experts at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) design tools to reduce the costs and risks of developing novel marine energy technologies. Free and publicly available, these software models provide data on a device’s potential performance, the resources (waves, tides, and currents) available at deployment sites across the United States, and costs associated with installing and operating marine energy technologies. With fast and accurate data, developers can learn how to optimize their designs—and reduce time, costs, and risks—before prototypes head into the water.
