OCE/OCG 513
Ocean Renewable Energy
Fall 2015
Dr M Reza Hashemi
reza [email protected]
212 Sheets Building
401.874.6217
Introduction
To reduce environmental impacts of greenhouse gas emissions, and to aid sustainable development,
there is a need to support low carbon technologies, especially from renewable sources. The ocean
is a vast and largely untapped energy resource, which can potentially supply the global electricity demand. Therefore, an emerging field of marine renewable energy industry has initiated, and
such expertise is increasingly on demand. Recently, a coordinated strategy for developing interdisciplinary ocean renewable energy program at URI has been formed to promote research and
education in this area (Ocean Renewable Energy Cluster). This course can serve as a stepping
stone for graduate/undergraduate students from various disciplines, who are interested in technical and environmental aspects of ocean renewable energy. It applies knowledge they have learned
across multiple courses in an exciting new area.
Course Description
The course will present the international and national ocean renewable energy landscape, and introduces recent device designs and current status of the marine renewable energy industry, Students
will understand key concepts in energy, including hydro-kinetic, potential and wave energy, power,
intermittency, and how these concepts relate to ocean energy. Students will learn to quantify ocean
energy resources for a specific region over a variety of timescales, and will be familiarized with constraints such as water depth, device efficiency and wave-current interactions. Other concepts such
as impacts of arrays of marine renewable energy devices on the physical environment (e.g. beaches
and sand banks), and optimization in array-scale and regional scale will be discussed. Through
term paper, they will work on a realistic case where they can apply their knowledge to address a
renewable energy problem, in their discipline.
Prerequisite(s): MCE 354 (Fluid Mechanics) or permission of instructor
Credit Hours: 3
3 hours per week in class lectures
Text: Marine Renewable Energy Technology and Environmental Interactions, 2014
ISBN 978-94-017-8002-5
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Authors: Shields, Mark A., Payne, Andrew I.L. (Eds.)
References
Renewable Energy, Elsevier
International Journal of Marine Energy, Elsevier
Applied Energy, Elsevier
Course objectives and learning outcomes:
At the completion of this course, students will be able to demonstrate:
• A critical understanding of current status of the ocean renewable energy industry
• An extensive knowledge about types of ocean energy and how the hydro-kinetic, potential,
and wave energy can be converted into electricity using energy devices.
• An understanding about constraints and challenges of ocean energy development at a region
of interest such as device performance and efficiency in an oceanic environment.
• Knowledge about global and the US ocean energy resources
• An ability to characterise the wave and tidal energy resources over a variety of timescales for
a region of interest.
• An understanding of the possible environmental impacts of marine renewable energy extraction, such as the impacts on beaches and offshore sandbanks, and ocean ecosystems
• Knowledge of time series and spatial analysis of large (multi-variable) datasets
• Knowledge of how ocean numerical models can be used in resource assessment and environmental impact studies
Grade Distribution:
Assignments
Midterm Exam
Final Exam
Term paper
20%
20%
30%
30 %
Note: Presenting the term paper is optional, but has additional 10% points
Term paper
The main idea of term paper is answering a research question based on information available in the
literature and/or students own analysis. It is not expected that students write an original research
paper which requires contributions to knowledge in ocean renewable energy area. Depending on
their area of interest and background, they should pick a topic, and discuss it with the instructor.
The topic of the term paper should be approved by the instructor of the course.
Term paper contents:
• What is the research question, and why it important?
• A brief literature survey about the topic
• Methods (existing data, numerical models,...)
• Results and discussions
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• Conclusions
Term Paper Topic Examples
• Tidal energy resources of New England
• Technical comparison of the recent wave energy devices
• The economical constraints of wave energy development over the east coast of the US
• A computer model of tidal lagoon at specific site
The term paper is usually 20-50 pages (1.5 spacing 12 pt font size, 1” margins).
Letter Grade Distribution:
>= 93
86 - 92
81 - 85
71 - 80
66 - 70
63 -65
A
AB+
B
BC+
61 - 62
58 - 60
56 - 57
51 - 55
<= 50
C
CD+
D
F
• Grades in the B range shows a performance that meets expectations, and grades in the A
range demonstrate an excellent performance.
Course Policies:
• Exams are closed book, closed notes.
• Class attendance and participation is essential in this course. Absentee’s are responsible for
all missed work, regardless of the reason for absence.
• Students are expected to be prepared for each lecture.
• Students are expected to work independently on their assignments Offering and/or accepting
solutions from others is an act of plagiarism, and involved parties will be penalized according
to the Academic Honesty Policy; however, discussion and interaction with peers is encouraged.
• Late assignments or term paper report will not be accepted.
• The topic of the term paper should be proposed by students, and approved by the instructor
.
• The format of presenting the term paper will be discussed during the semester in detail, but
it should generally have introduction, literature review, methodology, results and discussion.
Disability Services:
Students with a documented disability should visit web.uri.edu/disability or call 401-874-2098.
The office of disability services is located in the Memorial Union, Room 302. They should also notify me at the start of the course for appropriate accommodations of examinations and assignments.
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Suggestions:
You may find the Academic Enhancement Center and the Writing Center of URI useful to improve your academic skills. They are located on the fourth floor in Roosevelt Hall (Website:
http://www.uri.edu/aec/, http://www.uri.edu/writingcenter/). These centers have trained staff of
peer tutors, supplemental instruction leaders, and learning specialists to support student learning
including writing.
Table 1: Tentative Course Outline
Week
Week 1
• Introduction, renewable energy, global and the US ocean energy resources
Week 2
• Theoretical concepts, ocean renewable energy quantification
• First assignment
Week 3
• Hydrokinetic energy and tidal-streams
Week 4
• Tidal range, tidal barrages and lagoons
• Second assignment; Deadline of the first assignment
Week 5
• Wave energy extraction
• Deadline for term paper proposal submission
Week 5
• Wave energy converters
Week 6
• Array design considerations
• Deadline of the second assignment
Week 7
• Environmental interactions of marine renewable energy technologies
Week 8
• Monitoring methods for resource characterization
• Midterm exam
Week 9
• Ocean modelling and resource characterization
Week 10
• Ocean modelling and resource characterization
• Workshop
• Third assignment
Week 11
• Economic assessment
Week 12
• Optimisation methods in ocean renewable energy studies
Week 12
• Optimisation methods in ocean renewable energy studies
• Forth assignment; Deadline of the third assignment
Week 13
• Case studies
Week 14
• Future of ocean energy
• Review for Final Exam
• Deadline of the Forth assignment
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