Powering the Blue Economy: Resilient Coastal Communities

As a focus area of PBE, Resilient Coastal Communities (RCC) supports energy innovation for remote, coastal, and island communities with a focus on end-user needs, emergent blue economy markets, and technology optimization. Identifying R&D challenges and building the foundations of collaborations and partnerships are fundamental to the achievement of RCC objectives.

Marine energy resources could be located near potential desalination sites and population concentrations along the coast; therefore, areas that have unreliable grid connections or water infrastructure may receive both electricity and water benefits from marine energy systems. In the long term, marine energy could provide low-cost, emission-free, drought-resistant drinking water to larger municipalities.

Core focus areas are technology optimization in remote communities, system integration, and energy storage. Some of the major efforts related to RCC goals include:

• Building connections, partnerships, and capacity for remote, coastal, and island communities to evaluate their energy planning and resilience goals.
• Testing marine energy devices in a variety of remote communities to validate grid-forming and baseload generation capabilities, making it possible to integrate and hybridize energy services.
• Demonstrating and commercializing wave-powered desalination for disaster recovery, defense applications, international development, or other specific water market segments as a complementary technology with existing systems.
• Identifying designs and research for integrated energy systems for remote, coastal, and island applications focused on local industries, transportation, and enhanced resilience.
• Providing resources and access to on-the-ground support for remote, coastal, and island communities in the United States seeking to transform their energy systems and reduce their vulnerability to energy disruptions.

Resilient Coastal Communities