NNMREC

Summary for Congressman Dave Reichart

April 22, 2011

Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center

University of Washington http://depts.washington.edu/nnmrec/

NNMREC

National Marine Renewable Energy Centers

Hawaii National Marine Renewable Energy Center

(HINMREC)

• University of Hawaii• Wave, OTEC

Southeast National Marine Renewable Energy Center

(SNMREC)

• Florida Atlantic Univ.• Ocean Current, OTEC

Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center

(NNMREC)

• University of Washington (tidal)• Oregon State University (wave)• National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL)

NNMREC

Resource and Site

Assessment

System Engineering

Testing Capabilities

Environmental Effects

What are the conditions at tidal

energy sites?

What is the optimal design for tidal devices and

arrays?

How can the benefits from

testing be maximized?

How can impacts be mitigated?

UW-NNMREC Activities

NNMREC

UW-NNMREC Funding USDOE core funding

– UW –NNMREC receives 20% of Center’s budget ($250K / yr)– First 3 yrs funding obligated to date (through 03/14/2012)– Non-federal cost sharing requirement ($265K / yr)

Other USDOE and federal funding– 2009 FOA in cooperation with SnoPUD ($450K over 2 yrs)– 2009-11 studies for PNNL and NOAA ($425K over 3 yrs)– 2009 FOA in cooperation with ORPC ($30K, 3 months)– 2010 Sandia Nat’l Lab ($80K, 15 months)– 2010 CDP ($440K over 2 yrs)– 2011 USDOE/SnoPUD ($950K over 1.5 yrs)

Other funding– Martin Marine Fellowship ($95K over 3 yrs)– Industry (about $375K over 3 yrs)

NNMREC

Resource and Site Assessment - Motivation Site-specific information is

needed by multiple parties:Optimal siting

Existing information is insufficient Approaches to close knowledge

gaps are underdeveloped

Site Developers

Device DevelopersRegulatory Agencies

Design loads

Environmental context

NNMREC

Resource and Site Assessment - Tools

Seabed InstrumentationSea Spider Tripod

Shipboard SurveyR/V Jack Robertson

Land ObservationAIS Ship Tracks

NNMREC

Snohomish PUD PartnershipInstrumentation Deployments: April ‘09-Present

Methodology Development

Methodology Implementation

Site Data

Applied Research

NNMREC

Resource and Site Assessment - Modeling

Dep

artu

re fr

om B

i-dire

ctio

nal F

low

Bidirectional

Asymmetric

Device Selection and Siting

NNMREC

System Engineering – Advanced Modeling

Turbine-Wake Interactions

Array Optimization

Mooring Stability

Develop high-fidelity models to optimize devices and arrays

Address a range of system components

NNMREC

System Engineering - Advanced Materials

Composite AgingBiofouling

Foul Release Coatings

Corrosion

NNMREC

Testing Capabilities – Mobile Monitoring

Water Quality Water Sampler

WA Dept. of Ecology partnership

Ambient NoiseHydrophones

Fish SpeciesTag Receiver

Current VelocityDoppler profiler

Harbor Porpoise PresenceSpecialized

Hydrophones

Graduate Student

NNMREC

Environmental Effects – EvaluationRecording

Hydrophone

CPod

Automatic Identification System

DopplerProfiler

Data Collection Data Synthesis and Analysis

Potential for

Behavioral Change

Estimated Environmental

Effect

Species Behavior

Estimated Stress

NNMREC

Rivers and Constructed Channels Potential for power generation

from in-stream turbines installed in the fast-moving waters downstream from Columbia River dams

Incremental environmental impact should be very small

In-stream turbines for flow control and power generation as potential alternative for energy-dissipating sluice gates

NNMREC

Deep Water Offshore Wind WA and OR: 300 GW resource Floating platform technology required for

deep water Platforms can be built and systems

assembled in WA and OR

Currently installing 2 MW demonstration unit off Portugal

Initial study on environmental impacts and permit completed by UW-NNMREC

UW and OSU PIs currently

responding to 2 major funding

announcements by US DOE

Principle Power