Marine Energy Systems

Dear Colleagues,

The oceans are most likely to become the main renewable energy sources of the future. Their total energy potential believed to be allocatable is enormous; however, the energy is spatially diffuse and can only be economically harnessed in areas where marine energy is concentrated.

Depending on the type of energy source, these areas of high energy concentration are diverse in mode and intensity. Furthermore, these areas spread over various regions and require different approaches:

- coastal areas with relatively large and regular waves,

- sites with high tidal currents,

- estuaries with tidal and salinity gradients,

- nearshore tropical areas for ocean thermal energy

- upwelling areas with bio-activity and

- conflicts with other existing stakeholders

The energy from these marine renewable sources will not contribute significantly to the world energy supply within short notice. Nevertheless, it can be foreseen that these will be of increasing importance in particular areas where the resource potential is of great relevance and the societal framing conditions (e.g., favourable political permitting procedures and high economic return) advance these efforts.

Indeed, the successful commercial development of marine energy systems will depend on other surrounding economic conditions, such as the future development of costs for fossil fuels. In the long term marine energy sources is likely to benefit on their economic competitive position if the costs for conventional energy sources will increase. To address this alteration of energy production, considerable joint efforts are already in progress in all fields of development of marine energy systems. In particular these are pertinent in the areas of systems which convert energy from ocean and tidal currents, energy from tidal range, energy from waves, energy from salinity gradients, and thermal energy gradients into electrical energy. Additionally, there are several encouraging developments on the multi-functional use of these offshore sites (e.g., offshore wind farms and offshore aquaculture of e.g., macroalgae for bio-fuels). One motivation striving for spatial efficiency in these ocean areas is the potential diversion of risks and cost-reduction of these yet highly costly and risky endeavours.

This special issue is launched to provide a compilation of current state of the art and future perspectives in development and design of marine energy systems.

Prof. Dr. Bela H. Buck
Prof. Dr. Axel Bochert
Guest Editors

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• marine energy systems
• wave energy
• tidal energy
• salinity gradient energy
• wind energy
• thermal energy
• multi-use concepts
• marine instrumentation
• location assessment