Findings from the 3rd U.S. Instrumentation Workshop have been consolidated in a report by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Water Power Technologies Office
March 19, 2018
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Data plays a major role in advancing marine and hydrokinetic (MHK) technologies and solving environmental challenges, but it can be exceedingly difficult and expensive to obtain. To provide a platform for the MHK industry to examine and discuss contemporary instrumentation and sensor needs and challenges, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Energy Department’s Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) organized and facilitated the 3rd U.S. Instrumentation Workshop at Florida Atlantic University from February 28–March 1 of 2017. Findings from the workshop have been consolidated in a report by NREL, which can now be accessed here.
The workshop built upon the findings in measurement and modeling characteristics in MHK from the previous two workshops, with the last taking place in 2012 at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The 2017 iteration brought together 37 experts in marine energy measurement, testing, and technology development to reevaluate baseline understanding of marine energy converter data-processing, instrumentation, and measurement capabilities, as well as to conduct gaps analysis and development of solution pathways for measurement and data-processing technology.
After two days of in-depth discussions and presentations, findings were synthesized by NREL and organized into four distinct topical areas:
- Information dissemination and data processing
- Standards, guidelines, and recommended practices
- Enhanced measurement capabilities
- New measurement and testing needs.
Among these topic areas, several consistent, crosscutting gaps and themes were identified in marine measurement capabilities. There was consensus among workshop attendees that open-source tools for unified data processing and analysis need advancement. MHK data processing and analysis is routinely conducted using project-specific, custom codes, resulting in duplicative efforts and inconsistent methods for evaluating and interpreting results. Another theme was the need for a forum to share information, experience, and best practices. In spite of the marine industry experiencing an upsurge in testing activities both in the field and in the lab during the past decade, it was found that information-sharing has seldom been a priority. While protecting intellectual property is a major concern within the industry, consideration must be given to leveraging experiences and lessons learned to encourage technology development and to prevent the repetition of mistakes.
Additional information on workshop discussion topics, gaps, findings and analysis, and current tools relevant to the MHK industry have been organized and compiled into a report recently published by NREL which can be found here.