Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EU-SCORES (European Scalable Complementary Offshore Renewable Energy Sources)
Reporting period: 2022-11-01 to 2024-04-30
In the H-2020 green deal project EU-SCORES three key challenges are addressed via the demonstration of the combination of offshore wind with wave- and offshore solar energy.
1) Challenge to maintain a reliable energy system: The main challenge for a 100% renewable energy system is to balance supply and demand at all times to ensure security of power delivery.
2) Challenge to deal with limitations in space: Some of the best locations for onshore wind and onshore solar installations in Europe are already taken or are under high competition. The required increase in offshore capacity will lead to more pressure on other stakeholders and environmental protected areas, endangering public acceptance and the health of Europe’s oceans.
3) Challenge to maintain favourable business cases for renewable energy: Future business cases are less favourable as costs for bulk energy storage are high, negative prices during peak wind times are expected and the best locations are occupied or are shadowing each other. Other offshore renewables (wave, offshore solar and tidal) are not yet being deployed on a larger scale because of technical and financial risks based on the current TRL.
EU-SCORES delivers solutions for these interconnected challenges to demonstrate large-scale roll-out of complementary offshore renewable energy sources (wave, offshore wind & offshore solar) in so-called multi-source energy parks across different European sea basins. Since wind, sun and waves are complementary energy sources, these multi-source parks are enabling a more continuous power output which in turn leads to increased electricity grid resilience and higher capacity factors on export cables. This contributes to baseload electricity and balances the overall energy system, which increases the revenues and lowers the total cost per MWh. The increased power output and capacity installed per km2 reduce the amount of marine space needed, thus, leaving more space for other stakeholders and environmentally protected zones, ultimately increasing the speed of implementation. Co-using the critical electrical infrastructure and shared operation and maintenance schemes supported by autonomous systems lower the infrastructure costs per MWh produced.
Two technologies, offshore solar and wave energy converters, are demonstrated on a MW scale. The obtained data is used to give advice to policy makers and design credible business cases for the upscaling of those technologies inside offshore wind parks. This allows for removing technical, financial and regulatory risks. Altogether this will pave the way for bankable offshore multi-source energy parks across Europe by 2025 and beyond. These multi-source parks will use offshore space more efficiently and balance the electricity grid to achieve a resilient and cost-effective 100% renewable energy system.
1) Challenge to maintain a reliable energy system: The main challenge for a 100% renewable energy system is to balance supply and demand at all times to ensure security of power delivery.
2) Challenge to deal with limitations in space: Some of the best locations for onshore wind and onshore solar installations in Europe are already taken or are under high competition. The required increase in offshore capacity will lead to more pressure on other stakeholders and environmental protected areas, endangering public acceptance and the health of Europe’s oceans.
3) Challenge to maintain favourable business cases for renewable energy: Future business cases are less favourable as costs for bulk energy storage are high, negative prices during peak wind times are expected and the best locations are occupied or are shadowing each other. Other offshore renewables (wave, offshore solar and tidal) are not yet being deployed on a larger scale because of technical and financial risks based on the current TRL.
EU-SCORES delivers solutions for these interconnected challenges to demonstrate large-scale roll-out of complementary offshore renewable energy sources (wave, offshore wind & offshore solar) in so-called multi-source energy parks across different European sea basins. Since wind, sun and waves are complementary energy sources, these multi-source parks are enabling a more continuous power output which in turn leads to increased electricity grid resilience and higher capacity factors on export cables. This contributes to baseload electricity and balances the overall energy system, which increases the revenues and lowers the total cost per MWh. The increased power output and capacity installed per km2 reduce the amount of marine space needed, thus, leaving more space for other stakeholders and environmentally protected zones, ultimately increasing the speed of implementation. Co-using the critical electrical infrastructure and shared operation and maintenance schemes supported by autonomous systems lower the infrastructure costs per MWh produced.
Two technologies, offshore solar and wave energy converters, are demonstrated on a MW scale. The obtained data is used to give advice to policy makers and design credible business cases for the upscaling of those technologies inside offshore wind parks. This allows for removing technical, financial and regulatory risks. Altogether this will pave the way for bankable offshore multi-source energy parks across Europe by 2025 and beyond. These multi-source parks will use offshore space more efficiently and balance the electricity grid to achieve a resilient and cost-effective 100% renewable energy system.
- Kick-off of 98% (45/46) of the project tasks and submission of 34% (25/73) of EU-SCORES deliverables throughout the project. The deliverables include: detailed technical designs; WEC sub-system test reports, PTO dry test report; 16 permit submissions & financial predictions for the installation and upscaling of multi-source parks; baseline LCOE scenarios, internal launch & onboarding of the financial analysis platform; EU resource overlap & coarse resource maps; anchoring & mooring plan, environmental monitoring survey, energy management and power mitigation recommendations, robotics monitoring plan; set up EU-SCORES project management, data exchange & quality management structure; communication & dissemination strategy, stakeholder engagement plan, brand identity, website & social media.
- Agreement on following through with the project for the full four years (consortium-wide GO decision).
- Laying the foundations on the technical and financial engineering for multi-source parks (basic Operation & Maintenance model, Financial Design model, Park output model, Resource model).
- Deploying CPO’s first full-scale WEC C4 in Agucadoura & proven survivability in four major storms between August and November 2023.
- OOE receiving DNV’s Statement of Conformity for the Basis of Design of their offshore solar solution.
- In-port deployment of OOE’s offshore solar platform.
- Publication of 6 EU-SCORES scientific articles, 9 conference papers and 1 poster.
- Received media attention in Offshore-Biz, National Geographic Portugal, Der Spiegel a.o.
- Presenting the project in more than 65 events.
- Set up interactive experiences to showcase the benefits of multi-source energy parks to stakeholders. A stakeholder event was held to exchange with local stakeholders & EU and national policymakers.
- Conducting 1 hybrid kick-off at the Marine Energy Hub in The Hague (Sep.21) 3 online general assemblies (Jan.22 Apr.22 Jan.24) and 3 in-person general assemblies (in Cork Oct.22 Jan.23 Oct.23).
- Holding 24 project manager committee (PMC) meetings with the WP leads and test sites.
- Holding 7 scale-up advisory board meetings (with EDP Labelec, EGP, ENBW, ENECO, ENI, Meewind, OW, Parkwind, REN, RWE, SBE, TenneT, Wave Energy Scotland, UK government, a.o.).
- Successful meetings with policy makers in various countries on multi-source parks (CL, US, NO, NL, DE, IT, DK, PT, BE, IE).
- Agreement on following through with the project for the full four years (consortium-wide GO decision).
- Laying the foundations on the technical and financial engineering for multi-source parks (basic Operation & Maintenance model, Financial Design model, Park output model, Resource model).
- Deploying CPO’s first full-scale WEC C4 in Agucadoura & proven survivability in four major storms between August and November 2023.
- OOE receiving DNV’s Statement of Conformity for the Basis of Design of their offshore solar solution.
- In-port deployment of OOE’s offshore solar platform.
- Publication of 6 EU-SCORES scientific articles, 9 conference papers and 1 poster.
- Received media attention in Offshore-Biz, National Geographic Portugal, Der Spiegel a.o.
- Presenting the project in more than 65 events.
- Set up interactive experiences to showcase the benefits of multi-source energy parks to stakeholders. A stakeholder event was held to exchange with local stakeholders & EU and national policymakers.
- Conducting 1 hybrid kick-off at the Marine Energy Hub in The Hague (Sep.21) 3 online general assemblies (Jan.22 Apr.22 Jan.24) and 3 in-person general assemblies (in Cork Oct.22 Jan.23 Oct.23).
- Holding 24 project manager committee (PMC) meetings with the WP leads and test sites.
- Holding 7 scale-up advisory board meetings (with EDP Labelec, EGP, ENBW, ENECO, ENI, Meewind, OW, Parkwind, REN, RWE, SBE, TenneT, Wave Energy Scotland, UK government, a.o.).
- Successful meetings with policy makers in various countries on multi-source parks (CL, US, NO, NL, DE, IT, DK, PT, BE, IE).
Impact I - reliable and low-cost energy system.
Analyses were performed on energy management strategies for different European Sea Basins. Modelling results of a Dutch offshore solar-wave-wind farm show an increase of the capacity factor of 10 percentage points to 65% compared to the wind-only scenario. Hours during which the energy output was smaller than 20% of the export cable could be decreased by almost 60% compared to wind-only. This indicates that multi-source configurations are much better equipped to provide baseload electricity, even without the addition of storage. An energy system model for regions around the globe with a particular focus on the EU was started. Several regions have been analysed in greater detail including the British Isles, the Caribbean and Hawaii. Based on learning curve models, the LCOE of wave energy could decrease to 100€/MWh and below in 2035. For locations with optimal resources, the LCOE for wave energy could even be at 100€/MWh and below in 2030, and further decrease to 50€/MWh by 2050.
Impact II - efficient and sustainable use of available offshore space.
The competition for a limited amount of offshore and onshore space will make the installation of large-scale parks increasingly difficult.
Modelling results of a Dutch offshore solar-wave-wind farm show that the extracted energy density of the multi-source park was 22% higher than for the wind-only park.
Environmental impact assessments at the demonstration sites are evaluating the impact of multi-source parks on the natural habitats.
Impact III - improved business case and increased investment incentive.
Oceans of Energy received Statement of Conformity (SoC) by DNV, which is the first time an offshore solar farm system has received a certificate by DNV for offshore conditions. Oceans of Energy deploying their system in-port at Ostend, Belgium. CorPower Ocean deployed their first full-scale WEC in 2023 in Portugal.
Techno-financial analyses of a Dutch offshore solar-wave-wind farm show that the system costs per MWh exported decreased by 14% compared to wind-only.
Analyses were performed on energy management strategies for different European Sea Basins. Modelling results of a Dutch offshore solar-wave-wind farm show an increase of the capacity factor of 10 percentage points to 65% compared to the wind-only scenario. Hours during which the energy output was smaller than 20% of the export cable could be decreased by almost 60% compared to wind-only. This indicates that multi-source configurations are much better equipped to provide baseload electricity, even without the addition of storage. An energy system model for regions around the globe with a particular focus on the EU was started. Several regions have been analysed in greater detail including the British Isles, the Caribbean and Hawaii. Based on learning curve models, the LCOE of wave energy could decrease to 100€/MWh and below in 2035. For locations with optimal resources, the LCOE for wave energy could even be at 100€/MWh and below in 2030, and further decrease to 50€/MWh by 2050.
Impact II - efficient and sustainable use of available offshore space.
The competition for a limited amount of offshore and onshore space will make the installation of large-scale parks increasingly difficult.
Modelling results of a Dutch offshore solar-wave-wind farm show that the extracted energy density of the multi-source park was 22% higher than for the wind-only park.
Environmental impact assessments at the demonstration sites are evaluating the impact of multi-source parks on the natural habitats.
Impact III - improved business case and increased investment incentive.
Oceans of Energy received Statement of Conformity (SoC) by DNV, which is the first time an offshore solar farm system has received a certificate by DNV for offshore conditions. Oceans of Energy deploying their system in-port at Ostend, Belgium. CorPower Ocean deployed their first full-scale WEC in 2023 in Portugal.
Techno-financial analyses of a Dutch offshore solar-wave-wind farm show that the system costs per MWh exported decreased by 14% compared to wind-only.