Water power technologies research, efforts highlighted in recent accomplishments report

This month, Sandia’s research related to water power technologies was highlighted alongside the accomplishments of collaborators and other National Laboratories in the Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office 2019-2020 Accomplishments Report. The report’s compilation included highlights from Sandia’s Water Power Technologies program.

New, Centralized Portal for Marine Energy Information Sharing
Given the early stage of many marine energy technologies, there is limited publicly available data and information from commercial marine renewable energy projects, and data produced under different research efforts reside in many diverse locations and formats, and are often not catalogued or easily accessible. The Portal and Repository for Information on Marine Renewable Energy (PRIMRE) provides centralized access, standardization, community building, and integration of federally funded Knowledge Hubs, tools and codes, and other resources covering a range of marine renewable energy subject matter. Following the launch of the PRIMRE site in 2019, the multilab PRIMRE team—Sandia, PNNL, and NREL—focused on the development, maintenance, and integration of both new and existing Knowledge Hubs. Read about the latest PRIMRE developments and features on the Water Power Technologies Office website.

Co-Design Is Key
Through recent research, scientists have confirmed that using advanced controls can result in massive increases (up to 200%) in energy capture for wave energy devices; however, to realize maximum benefits, the controls, power-take-off (PTO) system, and basic structure of the device must all be co-designed from early stages of technology development. From 2014–2020, WPTO supported both Re Vision Consulting and Sandia in conducting controls system research focused on increasing the amount of energy captured from different types of waves to ultimately reduce the costs of power. Read the complete summary of the studies and researchers’ findings regarding co-design on the Water Power Technologies Office website.

Quantifying Marine Energy Noise in Complex Environments
New open-source, publicly available modeling tools have been released by Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia) and a number of partners to help quantify marine renewable energy interactions and noise in marine environments. The Hydrodynamic and Acoustic Models for Quantitative Environmental Assessment project has published several model-based reports, open-source codes, and various training materials that regulators, project developers, environmental consultants, and other scientists can use to evaluate potential environmental effects. Read more about the tools’ development, upcoming studies, and availability on the Water Power Technologies Office website.

View the complete 2019-2020 Accomplishments Report from the DOE Water Power Technologies Office on energy.gov.