By Bernardo Silva, INESC TEC manager
This interview was conducted with Bernardo Silva, INESC TEC’s manager, as part of the Blue Compass project, promoted by the Hub Azul Portugal Network, based on insights from the Hub Azul Dealroom, the leading digital matchmaking platform for blue innovation.
Is the ocean renewable energy sector evolving at the pace needed to meet energy and climate targets? What is still missing?
Firstly, it is necessary to distinguish between energy sources, namely offshore wind, wave energy, tidal energy and ocean solar. Offshore wind energy is at a commercially mature stage and has even proved itself in Portugal. However, wave energy, tidal energy and ocean solar energy are at a less technologically mature stage. In order to meet the targets, we need offshore energy systems that guarantee more energy from renewable sources and, desirably, a lower levelised cost of electricity (LCE). We may have to resort to different energy sources, sharing the use of interconnection infrastructures with the onshore grid, which represent a significant cost. In this way, some development is still needed to fulfil the targets. Nevertheless, investment in offshore wind with acceptable NECs could greatly help increase the penetration of renewable sources in the electricity system and create the necessary infrastructure for the future interconnection of other ocean energy sources.
What technical challenges (still) limit the commercial viability of new ocean renewable energy technologies?
New technologies need to be tested and this requires a kind of ‘green lane’ for testing, allowing access and interconnection to electricity grids quickly.
On the other hand, it is important to have industrial development to support all the activities and then manufacture the components that will integrate the new technologies in the commercial phase.
With regard to grid connection issues, it is also necessary to study the future of new substations that allow generator sets to be interconnected to the earthing infrastructure, in order to reduce the number of long submarine cable circuits.
On the other hand, the very interconnection between devices of different technologies in a plug-&-play fashion should be the subject of R&D, exploring the concept of the ‘T-connector’, a kind of ‘triple plug’ on a large scale and proof against ocean conditions.
What innovations (e.g. materials, digitalisation or artificial intelligence) have the potential to transform ocean technologies?
Ocean energies have high installation and maintenance costs. However, innovation could reduce these costs through the adoption of new technologies, both for monitoring and maintenance, making it possible to optimise processes and access digital twin models to check the health of various components.
In this respect, autonomous robotics will play a key role in inspection and data collection tasks. On the other hand, data analysis and digitisation of the different systems will enable the adoption of mathematical models that can identify anomalies and define the best time window for carrying out maintenance tasks.
Finally, artificial intelligence models can be trained to forecast resources and detect extreme phenomena, which will allow preventive protection strategies to be adopted for energy production assets. However, all the technology could also increase knowledge of the surrounding marine life, creating databases for future studies since it will be based on a strong network of sensors.