Deep Green i oceana strömmar - en konceptstudie

Sammanfattning: With growing economies and better living standards in many parts of the world today, there is a need of expanding the capacity of generating electricity. The alternatives for renewable energy technologies are not fully developed and have still some problems to conquer. The company Minesto has developed a technology that is called Deep Green. It is designed to gain electricity from tidal currents. Deep Green works in a similar way as a kite that is attached to the seafloor with a moving wire. It contains of a wing that moves due to the water current. The path of the movement is circular or a shape of an “8”. The turbine under the wing is powered by the water flow which in turn leads to generation of electricity by the generator. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the potential of using the Deep Green technology in ocean currents with respect to construction and economy. The site for the investigation is off the east coast of Florida where the Florida current streams with a speed of about 1, 5 m/s close to the surface. The major difference compared to the use in tidal currents is the deep waters of about 300 m and a oneway current direction. A mooring construction was developed and optimized and with the use of carbon fiber ropes, buoys and foundations lets 9 Deep Greens operate between 20 and 79 m depth. The idea is to install 7 such clusters with a total of 63 Deep Greens on the site in Florida. This configuration generates a power of 24 MW and gives a production of 185 GWh/year. Economic accounts were made with support of earlier made calculations regarding a park of 60 Deep Greens in a tidal current application. The results for the clustered configuration in ocean currents indicated a cost of 0,67 SEK/kWh with a discount rate of 8%. The required capital for the installation is about 780 mSEK (CAPEX). The operating costs (OPEX) are 43,3 mSEK. The design seems reasonable in many respects and it operates in a continuous ocean current with good electricity generation. The use of Deep Green in ocean currents speaks for being a profitable application. Though, it will be a large‐scale economic project, mainly because installations in a small scale will not be profitable due to costs such as grid connection. Critical issues to look at in a further development was considered to be surveys of the installation site, the displacement and movements of the mooring, the buoyancy‐system and the installation procedure.