IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/rensus/v151y2021ics1364032121007759.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A review of component and system reliability in tidal turbine deployments

Author

Listed:
  • Walker, S.
  • Thies, P.R.

Abstract

Tidal stream energy has the potential to contribute to global renewable energy generation, but this remains largely untapped. Technical developments have helped create a nascent industry with several pre-commercial installations. However, planned projects experience a cautious investment climate due to perceived risk of failure, and maintenance and repair cost. This paper reviews 58 tidal stream energy deployments between 2003 and August 2020. The analysis reviews commonalities, success and engineering issues, to inform current and future projects. The work classifies each deployment by type, rated power, number of devices, grid connection and foundation. In each case, project status and (if appropriate) failure mode is identified. Failure modes are compared to deployment classification to identify potential relationships. Most deployments were of horizontal axis turbines. The majority (54%) of deployments performed well. 18% failed, 14% were withdrawn from service, and 14% generated less power than planned. The most common failure cause was blade failure, followed by generator and monitoring failures. Ducted devices and devices in high velocity locations were more likely to fail, suggesting that flow velocity is a key factor. Most blade failures were attributed to underestimation of loads during design. Floating deployments were less likely to fail than fixed deployments, but more likely to be curtailed. Off-grid and grid connected deployments showed similar failure rates, suggesting sector immaturity. Tidal stream energy has accumulated around 1.4 million operating hours. Analysis shows a falling empirical failure rate, and likelihood of failure similar to that experienced by the wind industry at a similar stage. This work will be useful for project planners, developers and technology companies and investors in de-risking future project efforts.

Suggested Citation

  • Walker, S. & Thies, P.R., 2021. "A review of component and system reliability in tidal turbine deployments," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:151:y:2021:i:c:s1364032121007759
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2021.111495
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032121007759
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.rser.2021.111495?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Boccard, Nicolas, 2009. "Capacity factor of wind power realized values vs. estimates," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(7), pages 2679-2688, July.
    2. Mueller, Markus & Wallace, Robin, 2008. "Enabling science and technology for marine renewable energy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(12), pages 4376-4382, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Walker, Stuart R.J. & Thies, Philipp R., 2022. "A life cycle assessment comparison of materials for a tidal stream turbine blade," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 309(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ioannidis, Romanos & Koutsoyiannis, Demetris, 2020. "A review of land use, visibility and public perception of renewable energy in the context of landscape impact," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 276(C).
    2. Castro-Santos, Laura & Martins, Elson & Guedes Soares, C., 2016. "Cost assessment methodology for combined wind and wave floating offshore renewable energy systems," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 866-880.
    3. Zeyringer, Marianne & Fais, Birgit & Keppo, Ilkka & Price, James, 2018. "The potential of marine energy technologies in the UK – Evaluation from a systems perspective," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 1281-1293.
    4. Marques, António Cardoso & Fuinhas, José Alberto & Menegaki, Angeliki N., 2014. "Interactions between electricity generation sources and economic activity in Greece: A VECM approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 34-46.
    5. Paul L. Joskow, 2011. "Comparing the Costs of Intermittent and Dispatchable Electricity Generating Technologies," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(3), pages 238-241, May.
    6. Boccard, Nicolas, 2010. "Economic properties of wind power: A European assessment," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(7), pages 3232-3244, July.
    7. Linnell, Peter, 2010. "Are Smaller Turbines the Way Forward for Wind Energy in Herefordshire?," MPRA Paper 58879, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. de Medeiros, Armando Lúcio Ramos & Araújo, Alex Maurício & de Oliveira Filho, Oyama Douglas Queiroz & Rohatgi, Janardan & dos Santos, Maurílio José, 2015. "Analysis of design parameters of large-sized wind turbines by non-dimensional model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 93(P1), pages 1146-1154.
    9. Considine, Timothy J. & Manderson, Edward J.M., 2015. "The cost of solar-centric renewable portfolio standards and reducing coal power generation using Arizona as a case study," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 402-419.
    10. Luis M. Abadie & Nestor Goicoechea, 2021. "Old Wind Farm Life Extension vs. Full Repowering: A Review of Economic Issues and a Stochastic Application for Spain," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-24, June.
    11. Timothy Considine & Edward Manderson, 2013. "Balancing Fiscal, Energy, and Environmental Concerns: Analyzing the Policy Options for California’s Energy and Economic Future," Energies, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-32, March.
    12. Eric Lucas dos Santos Cabral & Mario Orestes Aguirre Gonzalez & Priscila da Cunha Jacome Vidal & Joao Florencio da Costa Junior & Rafael Monteiro de Vasconcelos & David Cassimiro de Melo & Ruan Lucas , 2024. "Optimization Models for Operations and Maintenance of Offshore Wind Turbines Based on Artificial Intelligence and Operations Research: A Systematic Literature Review," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 19(3), pages 1-1, June.
    13. He, Gang & Kammen, Daniel M., 2014. "Where, when and how much wind is available? A provincial-scale wind resource assessment for China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 116-122.
    14. Flora, Rui & Marques, António Cardoso & Fuinhas, José Alberto, 2014. "Wind power idle capacity in a panel of European countries," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 823-830.
    15. Carlos de Castro & Iñigo Capellán-Pérez, 2020. "Standard, Point of Use, and Extended Energy Return on Energy Invested (EROI) from Comprehensive Material Requirements of Present Global Wind, Solar, and Hydro Power Technologies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-43, June.
    16. Marc Baudry & Clément Bonnet, 2019. "Demand-Pull Instruments and the Development of Wind Power in Europe: A Counterfactual Analysis," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 73(2), pages 385-429, June.
    17. Mentis, Dimitrios & Siyal, Shahid Hussain & Korkovelos, Alexandros & Howells, Mark, 2016. "A geospatial assessment of the techno-economic wind power potential in India using geographical restrictions," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 77-88.
    18. Peter Haan & Martin Simmler, 2016. "Wind Electricity Subsidies = Windfall Gains for Land Owners? Evidence from Feed-In Tariff in Germany," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1568, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    19. Habibi Khalaj, Ali & Abdulla, Khalid & Halgamuge, Saman K., 2018. "Towards the stand-alone operation of data centers with free cooling and optimally sized hybrid renewable power generation and energy storage," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 451-472.
    20. Neill, Simon P. & Hashemi, M. Reza & Lewis, Matt J., 2016. "Tidal energy leasing and tidal phasing," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 580-587.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:151:y:2021:i:c:s1364032121007759. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.