Civil and Environmental Engineering - Reports
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Item Co-designing opportunities towards the development of Irish offshore wind(MaREI Centre, Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork, 2020-06-23) Judge, Frances M.; Cummins, Valerie; O’Hagan, Anne Marie; Murphy, Jimmy; Science Foundation Ireland; University College CorkThe aim of this study is to assess the capacity within Government departments and associated State agencies in terms of human resources to deliver Ireland’s offshore wind targets (e.g. 3.5GW by 2030), and make recommendations on the investment in human resources required. Discussions were held with representatives from a number of Government departments and agencies to determine the numbers of people currently engaged in work relating to offshore wind and to gain an understanding of the tasks that must still be accomplished before offshore wind turbines can be installed in Irish waters. The planning and consenting process for offshore wind in Scotland was also investigated to see if there are lessons to be learned by Ireland from the Scottish experience. It was found that there are a number of potential bottlenecks within the consenting process that must be addressed if Ireland’s offshore wind targets are to be met. It is likely that An Bord Pleanála will receive a surge of offshore wind farm applications from Relevant Projects in 2021/2022; therefore, it is recommended that a minimum of 10 staff within An Bord Pleanála should be dedicated to processing these applications. Both the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, and the Department of Communications, Climate Action and the Environment will need additional resourcing to ensure efficient marine planning and consenting processes. It is also recommended that resources are fed into the statutory consultees to ensure proper consultation and to prevent challenges on nature conservation grounds creating lengthy delays. For this reason also, the establishment of a coordinated scientific research and data collection programme is recommended to support the marine spatial planning and consenting processes.Item Ocean energy technology guidance report(MaRINET2, 2021-12-21) Judge, Frances M.; Elliot, Mairéad; O’Boyle, Louise; Long, Caitlin; Candido, José; Noble, Donal; Davey, Thomas; Salcedo, Fernando; Lopez-Mendia, Joseba; O’Shea, Michael; Horizon 2020The journey of an offshore renewable energy (ORE) device from an idea on paper to a commercial deployment is long, expensive and usually beset by numerous difficulties and dead ends. Physical testing is expensive and suitable test facilities are not available in every country. Furthermore, the guidance available for conducting physical testing is limited, and standardised processes for each stage of development have not yet been fully developed. It is not always clear what technological advancement should be prioritised at each stage of development and where money is best spent. Many developers, despite having a device that performs well, have difficulties securing the finance necessary to progress to the next stage of development. Developers of wave energy converters (WECs) are particularly susceptible to the pitfalls outlined above due to the sector in general being at an earlier stage of development compared with the tidal and floating wind sectors. Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) are the globally accepted index for benchmarking and tracking a technology’s development from conceptualisation to full system demonstration. ORE developers must ensure their technology meets certain performance criteria to progress through the TRLs. However, achieving these performance metrics, while crucial, will not necessarily result in success. Other factors such as cost and a good business plan are also essential to ensure progression. This deliverable aims to assist ORE developers in their journey to commercial deployment by providing an overview of the different frameworks as well as individual metrics that can be used to assess offshore renewable energy devices through all stages of development. The metrics range from those that measure performance, and technical and economic feasibility, to metrics that can be used to determine how ready a developer is to progress their business commercially. Freely available resources that can help ORE developers progress through the TRLs are presented. Many of these resources are the results of other collaborative projets funded by the EU.Item Test recommendations and gap analysis report(MaRINET2, 2018-05-18) Noble, Donal; Draycott, S.; Ordonez Sanchez, S.; Porter, K.; Johnstone, C.; Finch, S.; Judge, Frances M.; Desmond, C.; Santos Varela, B.; Lopez Mendia, Joseba; Darbinyan, D.; Khalid, Faryal; Johanning, Lars; Le Boulluec, Marc; Schaap, A.; Horizon 2020This report is a review of published standards and guidelines for testing of marine renewable energy devices. Recommendations are given on which documents address particular aspects of testing. Additionally, a gap analysis has been undertaken to identify areas not well covered by existing documents. This is based on the review of published documents, from responses to a questionnaire sent out to each test facility involved in the MaRINET2 programme, and the experience of project partners contributing to this report. Marine renewable energy is a very diverse topic, with a wide range of technology types and configurations, including wave energy converters (WECs), tidal energy converters (TECs), and floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs). These devices also span the full range of technology development, from early concept to commercial deployment. The commonality between these is that all are designed to extract renewable energy from the marine environment, and are therefore subject to the harsh conditions this entails. One of the challenges in producing guidance for marine renewable energy testing is the shear diversity of device concepts. A three level device classification template was developed for wave and tidal energy converters as part of the EquiMar protocols [1]. This categorises devices based on the general form, the power take-off subsystem, plus the reaction and control subsystems. For each level, there are a number of standardised descriptors, giving many thousands of possible device concept permutations. Technology reviews, such as [2], [3], identify more than 100 wave and tidal energy concepts in various stages of development. Marine renewable energy is still an emerging technology. As such, there is still a lack of mature standards and guidance for the development and testing of these devices. This report aims to summarise relevant published guidance and standards, and highlight any gaps or areas for further development.Item Final guidelines for test applicants(MaRINET2, 2021-06-30) Judge, Frances M.; Salvatore, Francesco; Davey, Tom; Corlay, Yann; Martinez, Rodrigo; Marina, Dorleta; Finnegan, William; Khalid, Faryal; Johanning, Lars; Flannery, Brian; Sestafe, Eider Robles; Fernandez, Fernando Salcedo; Horizon 2020The aim of this report is to provide guidance for device developers or research teams that are planning a test campaign for an offshore renewable energy device. The report gathers learnings from the MaRINET2 Transnational Access programme, in which 173 users were granted access to facilities around Europe over the course of 5 calls. Both users and facility operators fed into this report. Learnings from the round robin test programme conducted as part of the research programme in MaRINET2 are also included where relevant.Item Round robin findings and recommendations.(MaRINET2, 2021-12) Judge, Frances M.; Gueydon, Sebastien; Salvatore, Francesco; Johnstone, Cameron; Ohana, Jérémy; Thiebaut, Florent; Bouscasse, Benjamin; Davey, Thomas; Hann, Martyn; Le Boulluec, Marc; Khalid, Faryal; Finnegan, William; Davies, Peter; Goggins, Jamie; Horizon 2020EU H2020 MaRINET2 project aims to improve the quality, robustness and accuracy of physical modelling and testing practices implemented by test infrastructures. A key element of the project is a round robin testing program where generic wave, floating wind, and tidal devices are tested in different infrastructures in order to assess the impact the facility itself has on the experimental results. Innovative laboratory testing was also conducted for crosscutting applications through this research initiative. MaRINET2 builds on the EU FP7 MaRINET project which concluded in 2015. A tidal round robin campaign was conducted in the MaRINET project [1] but efforts to conduct a meaningful wave round robin were unsuccessful. Therefore, in MaRINET2, four round robin testing campaigns were conducted involving tidal, wave, floating wind and cross-cutting devices. The tidal round robin used the same device as in the MARINET project, whereas the wave campaign involved the design and build of new generic devices. In the wind round robin, the device was chosen based on an open-access model previously designed as part of the INNWIND.EU project. The cross-cutting campaign involved several different activities, including mooring line testing, tidal blade testing, and subsea umbilical testing. All round robin devices were successfully tested in several facilities around Europe. This report summarises each test campaign. The objectives of each test programme are explained, the models are described, and the results are presented and analysed. Learnings from each campaign and recommendations for future round robin activities are discussed. Data from the round robin campaigns is open-access and available through the MaRINET2 e-infrastructure. The e-infrastructure is accessible via the link on the MaRINET2 website, or through the OpenAIRE Explore database (https://explore.openaire.eu).