A new emerging energy technology - Pelamis - Demonstration of the assessment by EMINENT tool

Over the last few years there has been an increasing amount of research and technology development associated with low or even zero based carbon emitting energy sources. More recently volatility in the price of oil and gas, and concerns with energy supplies, has increased the number of potential solutions to the problems of low carbon energy sources and stable and secure supply chains. New energy supply technologies should be the most appropriate under different economic conditions and different locations and scales. This is a difficult and time consuming problem. A novel early stage energy technology assessment tool has been developed during the EC DIG TREN sponsored EMINENT project. This tool enables the evaluation of potential emerging energy technologies and to compare their economic and environmental impact with current technologies. The paper describes a case study which demonstrates how the EMINENT software tool can be used to effectively assess a new emerging energy technology - Pelamis - in the context of providing additional supply to the energy network. The Pelamis technology is a hinged contour device which follows the motion of the waves and creates power from the motion at the joints. Analysis of a Pelamis module of 750kW capacity has been carried out under local conditions for a pre-defined energy chain.. The technology was initially entered into the database of the EMINENT tool and then used for the analysis. A similar pattern was carried out for an existing technology for a similar energy chain. Economic, energy and environmental criteria of the two technologies were then compared. The paper also demonstrates how novel training methods can be used to increase the rate of technological dissemination in the market.