Comparative Techno-Economic Analysis and Siting Strategies for Marine Renewable Energy Systems in Coastal Microgrids

Abstract

Communities in remote island regions tend to rely on expensive and unreliable forms of diesel based energy production. However, this method to generate energy leads to severe environmental impacts, is unsustainable due to finite resources, and has a volatile price. This project aims to investigate into a more sustainable and environmentally friendly route, marine renewable energy. This paper begins by examining the viability and performance of tidal stream, wave, and ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) production in terms of LCOE, challenges, capacity factors, and technology readiness levels (TRLs) focusing on the strategy and future outlooks of different designs. In addition to this, the project examines the efficiency and cost benefits in terms of different designs such as creating a hybrid microgrid between different technologies as well as comparing strategic choices on optimization depending on siting constraints. By comparing different technologies against each other in terms of current standing as well as future perspectives, we see a more full scale image of the current state of Marine energy through this paper.