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Marine energy systems
Speaker abstracts and biographies
Chair: Dr Bob Allwood, Chief Executive, Society for Underwater Technology
Dr Bob Allwood graduated from the University of Reading, UK, with a degree in physics and obtained his PhD from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. After working in the field of physics research for some five years at Heriot-Watt University and in industry, he then turned his attention to the problems of working in the underwater environment. Over the coming years he was to work the University’s Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering on ROV development and then as Manager of Engineering in the University’s Institute of Offshore Engineering.
He moved to Cranfield University in 1986 as Senior Lecturer in Underwater Technology and undertook research aimed at the improvement of underwater vision. Later he was to become Director of Offshore Technology at the University and in recent years developed a successful masters course in Offshore and Ocean Technology. In December 2009 Bob was appointed Chief Executive of the Society for Underwater Technology, a learned society with headquarters in London.
Wave & Tidal Energy - A Commercial Reality in Scotland?
In recognition of the contribution it will make towards these renewables targets, at the end of 2008 the world’s 1st Licencing Round for wave and tidal technologies was announced covering the waters of the Pentland Firth and Orkney, off the north coast of Scotland. The Scottish Government is also progressing a number of different initiatives to boost the development of the industry.
The private sector has risen to the challenge and there has been considerable investment to better understand the wave and tidal resources of the Pentland Firth and select the sites most worthy of development. The Crown Estate received over 40 applications in response to it’s licencing round and the successful applicants were announced in March 2010. In total 1,200 MW of projects have been awarded agreement for lease. The companies that have been awarded agreement for lease have a series of milestones they need to meet over the coming years, prior to them eventually being awarded the seabed lease.
Although many wave and tidal technology developers are only just getting prototype devices in the water, there is great political will and developer enthusiasm to get commercial projects off the ground.
In the background, the Scottish Government has just implemented new marine planning legislation, The Marine Scotland Act 2010, which will influence how marine renewables projects may develop in the future. This legislation provides for a streamlined consenting process for marine projects, marine spatial planning and designation of marine protected areas (MPAs).
There are also major challenges relating to grid tariff schemes and the capability of the electricity grid infrastructure to transport energy to the main centres of population.
It all makes for an interesting case study and my presentation, providing an overview of recent public and private sector activities and experiences in the wave and tidal industry in Scotland, will give useful insight to help other areas of the world take this novel industry forward.
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Liz Foubister, Director, Alternative Energy, Xodus Group Europe
She has first hand experience of the recent UK Crown Estate licencing round, working for a number of the companies bidding for development areas. She is also involved in a project for the Scottish Government looking to streamline the consenting process and produce environmental impact assessment guidance for the wave and tidal industry in Scotland. This wide portfolio of projects gives her an insight into ongoing public and private sector activities in this novel industry.
Ocean Power Technologies Inc - Projects in Australia and Overseas
This paper will outline OPT’s technology, and discuss OPT and OPTA’s business strategy and partnerships around the world, as well as current and potential applications of the technology. Additionally the paper will describe a number of projects underway in Australia and other parts of the world.
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Gilbert George, Director, Ocean Power Technologies Inc
Gilbert George has a BSc with Honours in Agricultural Science from the University of Western Australia, as well as a Masters of Economics from Hitotsubashi University (Tokyo, Japan).
After working in Government and semi government positions for 12 years, including 5 years with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs in Tokyo, he started his own private investment banking consultancy in 1988, and has been involved in approximately A$1 billion of new investment into Australia. Areas include value-added agricultural products, new technologies, resources and renewable energy.
Gilbert has worked with OPT Inc since 1997, and has been a director of OPTA since 2004. He was a foundation director of Tokyo Electric (Australia) Pty Ltd, and Tokyo Gas (Australia) Pty Ltd. Gilbert has also been a member of the Asian Round Table and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s Wave Power Initiative
He is non-executive Chairman of listed exploration company Mindax Ltd, and was co-executive producer of a mildly successful horror film (Lake Mungo).
The development of Aquamarine Power’s nearshore hydro-electric wave energy converter Oyster®
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About Aquamarine Power
Aquamarine Power is the owner and developer of Oyster, the world’s largest working hydro-electric wave energy device. Oyster harnesses the natural energy found in nearshore waves and converts it into sustainable zero-emission electricity. Oyster is a simple mechanical hinged flap connected to the seabed at around 10m depth. Each passing wave moves the flap, driving hydraulic pistons to deliver high pressure water via a pipeline to an onshore electrical turbine. Multiple Oyster devices are designed to be deployed in utility-scale wave farms typically of 100MW or more. Oyster will combine high efficiency and survivability with low cost operations, maintenance and manufacture to produce reliable cost-competitive electricity from the waves for the first time.
Dr Garth Bryans, Head of New Technologies and Energy Forecasting, Aquamarine Power, UK
Dr Garth Bryans joined Aquamarine Power as Senior Resource Analyst in 2008 before being promoted to Head of New Technologies and Energy Forecasting. Garth and his team are responsible for modeling wave and tidal resource, selecting sites for development and assessing the market available for the technology to facilitate the development of a technology with maximum market access. Dr. Bryans is involved several advisory groups including the wave modeling expert group of EPRI, advising the US government on how to model the wave resource around the US coast, the council of the MIRA group which represents the interests of the marine energy developers in Ireland and the group advising the Marine Institute on wave energy resource assessment for Ireland.
Prior to joining Aquamarine Power, Garth worked for Airtricity Limited where he was responsible for producing the market price forecast, customer demand forecast, optimization of interconnector bids and bilateral contracts against a position containing a high percentage of wind generation. In 2008 Dr. Bryans moved within Airtricity to a new group which had been established to start the development of Wave and Tidal farms in the UK and Ireland, where he was responsible for assessing the technologies and for modeling the wave and tidal resource.
In 2006, Garth received a Doctor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Queen’s University Belfast, titled “The impact of tidal stream devices on electrical power systems”. This piece of work included modeling the tidal resource around Ireland, modeling the effect of tidal generation on system stability, the necessary system upgrades required to develop the tidal resource, the effect on the electricity system market and the net effect on system emissions given the constant ramping up and down of thermal balancing plant.
