Testing Infrastructure Access and Development

As the marine energy industry continues to advance technologies, there is an ongoing need for testing at all stages of technological development, including laboratory testing and open water, or field, testing. Current marine energy testing capabilities in the United States are broad, and supporting testing needs across a range of resources (wave, ocean current, tidal, and river current).  However, gaps in capabilities remain that require either new infrastructure or upgrades to existing facilities and/or equipment. Additionally, marine energy device developers often face challenges raising the capital needed to conduct necessary laboratory, tank, and real-world testing, as facilities with the necessary infrastructure are costly and difficult to access, and open-water testing requires complex permitting processes and expensive environmental monitoring. 

The Testing Infrastructure Access and Development sub-activity area supports efforts to ensure a robust suite of testing capabilities at all stages of technology development, help improve device performance and reliability, and reduce costs and timelines associated with permitting. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) seeks to provide marine energy developers and researchers with access to testing facilities and expertise. This includes laboratory facilities, including those at the National Laboratories and National Marine Energy Centers (NMECs), as well as open water sites. It also supports test site development like PacWave—a grid-integrated, open-water test facility off the coast of central Oregon—to provide marine energy developers a fast and streamlined process to install and test large-scale devices in a relevant ocean environment.  

WPTO plans to pursue these goals through the following research priorities: 

• Laboratory Facilities 
  • Oversee the release of two to four requests for technical support per year for the initial period for the Testing Expertise and Access for Marine Energy Research (TEAMER) program; expand the testing network; identify any additional infrastructure needs/gaps; and, as appropriate, address those needs. 
  • Support infrastructure upgrades, modernization, operation, and maintenance at the National Labs and NMECs for marine energy research, development, testing, and evaluation 
• Open-Water Testing 
  • Commission PacWave, a first-of-its-kind, state-of-the-art, grid-connected test facility to evaluate wave energy converter (WEC) performance, environmental interactions, and survivability to facilitate maturation of marine energy systems in preparation for commercialization  
  • Evaluate industry need, characteristics, and costs for a megawatt-scale, open-water, grid-connected CEC test facility (ocean current and/or tidal).