Enough power flows through U.S. rivers and oceans to meet up to 60% of the country’s electricity needs. But before today’s early-stage marine energy technologies can harness some of that power, they need to overcome a few challenges, such as a volatile ocean and high development costs. And to do that, technology developers need reliable tools to understand and overcome the challenges they face.
That’s why researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have developed several open-source, validated, and customizable numerical tools for technology developers. With these tools, the marine energy community can assess their devices’ potential power output, predict how their technologies might handle extreme loads (like extreme waves), and learn how changing one component might affect their device’s performance.
The lab’s models generate highly accurate, reliable, robust data that can help marine energy devices leap from the computer screen to the ocean and, eventually, the power grid.
