Mapping economic performance of wave energy

An economic model has been developed to map wave energy performance and levelised cost of energy (LCOE). It uses hindcast wave data time-series. Interpolating these data against a device power matrix, power can be obtained, and hence LCOE by considering project costs. The results, serving as high level site assess-ment tools, can be mapped to establish the most cost-competitive projects. The work has been carried out with Albatern Ltd, a wave energy developer and partner of the research project. Their technology, the WaveNET, is an array based device, constructed from modular units. Sample results are presented, comparing the LCOE at two module scales. While the larger scale device generally performed better, there were a number of shel-tered locations where the smaller was cheaper, sometimes by as much as 20-30 p/kWh. This implies that there are multiple device solutions to wave energy, and that scale could be tuned for location.