By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Thu, 2008-11-13 06:30
$4 billion investment required
Ocean power is still a minor in the renewable energy sector. It consists mainly of wave power and tidal stream power, and both technologies have only just embarked on their first commercial projects. Today, less than 10 MW of ocean power capacity has been installed. However, according to a report by Greentech Media and the Prometheus Institute for Sustainable Development, this technology could reach 1 GW of installed capacity and grid parity within six years from now.
Such progression would require $2 billion of investment in research, design and development and another $2 billion in commercial production and installation. Compare those figures with the $500 million investment made between 2001 and 2007.
How this technology will develop in the next few years depends greatly on the investment climate and the willingness of the power sector to buy in to these type of projects. These, in turn, depend on the readiness of governments to create dedicated policies and incentives for this sector.
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By David Chapman / Published on Tue, 2008-06-24 16:22
Availability - the proportion of time for which systems are available to do real work - is becoming increasingly important. It is now the case that most industrial and commercial consumers operate many loads that require higher power availability than that which can be obtained directly from the supply network. Improving the performance of the network is both difficult and expensive, so it is usually left to the consumer to take action to mitigate the effects of poor power quality and availability.
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By Angelo Baggini / Published on Wed, 2007-02-28 21:44
To achieve high reliability, the choice of the scheme for electrical distribution is of primary importance in electrical design. This requires a thorough knowledge of future loads and of the characteristics of supply. This animation shows the most common schemes for electricity distribution from a technical and economic point of view.
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