Modelling and Assessment of Marine Renewable Energy Resources Andrew Cornett Canadian Hydraulics Centre National Research Council Canada May 2008
Background Pan-Canadian resource inventory in 2005/06 Canada endowed with rich wave energy resources along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts Numerous sites with rich tidal current energy resources identified and assessed Further investigation required to refine, improve and verify initial estimates in many areas Further investigations in 2007/08 Focus on regions/resources with industry activity and interest Near-shore waves on the west coast of Vancouver Island River current resources along the St. Lawrence Tidal current resources in the Bay of Fundy MarKE Marine Kinetic Energy Explorer
Wave energy devices What kind of technologies? WET EnGen OPD -Pelamis Kinetic flow devices (i.e. turbines for tidal flows and rivers) Not tidal barrages Not low-head hydro Not conventional hydro Clean Current Verdant Power
Atlantic Canada Wave Energy Resource ~24 kw/m ~10 kw/m ~43 kw/m ~26 kw/m ~37 kw/m
Annual mean wave power from WW3-NWA hindcast 10-20 kw/m close to shore?? 0.25 by 0.25 resolution 3 hour time interval 5+ year simulation Extensive validation Unreliable close to shore Data courtesy NOAA-MMAB
Potential Tidal Kinetic Energy - Canada
Potential Tidal Kinetic Energy Atlantic Canada At least 15 good sites in N.S. with >2,000MW of potential power Tide range
Tidal Currents - Bay of Fundy Developed a large 3D hydrodynamic model Irregular finite-element mesh, 1,045,000 triangular elements, 5 levels High-resolution in key areas (~100m elements) Telemac-3D solver Calibrated/verified the model to water levels and current measurements Simulated a typical 14-day spring-neap tide cycle Detailed characterization of the kinetic energy resource at key locations Created MarKE-Fundy - A Marine Kinetic Energy Explorer for the Bay of Fundy
Model calibration and validation Replicate known water level fluctuations throughout the Bay Compare with available velocity measurements
Animation of tidal flows at Minas Passage
Minas Passage - Flood
Minas Passage - Ebb
Minas Passage X-section Ebb Tide Flood Tide
Grand Passage, Petit Passage - Flood Petit Passage Long Island Grand Passage
Petit Passage - Flood Grand Passage - Flood
Demo of MarKE-Fundy
Launch the MarKE application Turn on GIS layers (satellite image, communities, roads, utilities, ) Select variable to map (bathymetry, velocity, power density, ) Pan and zoom to region of interest
Launch the MarKE application Turn on GIS layers (satellite image, communities, roads, utilities, ) Select variable to map (bathymetry, velocity, power density, ) Pan and zoom to region of interest GIS layers Variables to map
Select location to explore Select elevation of interest Analyse Location of interest Analyse Elevation
View velocity profile
View tidal ellipse and velocity rose
View time series and histograms of velocity and available power density View statistics Statistics Time series
View time series and histograms of velocity and available power density View statistics Statistics Histograms
Define turbine properties Size Operating mode (constant speed or variable speed) Cut-off speeds Efficiency curve Analyse Size Operating Mode Cut-off speeds Efficiency Curve
View time series and histogram of generated power View statistics View overall efficiency Statistics Available Energy & Generated Energy Generated power time series
Save and export data Explore a new location Statistics Available Energy & Generated Energy Generated power histogram
With funding from: Natural Resources Canada Province of Nova Scotia Province of New Brunswick Thank you! Andrew Cornett 613-993-6690 Andrew.Cornett @ nrc.ca