Cost Analysis of Osprey C.R.E.W.

Presenter Information

J. Whipple
B. Labban
A. Kapperman
B. Rodriguez
C. Harrison
P. Tubuntoeng
L. F. de Valderrama
A. Daniels
C. AkanFollow
N. Ozdemir

Faculty Sponsor

Dr. Cigdem Akan, Dr. Nulufer Ozdemir

Faculty Sponsor College

College of Computing, Engineering & Construction

Faculty Sponsor Department

Engineering

Location

SOARS Virtual Conference

Presentation Website

https://unfsoars.domains.unf.edu/2021/posters/osprey-c-r-e-w/

Keywords

SOARS (Conference) (2021 : University of North Florida) – Archives; SOARS (Conference) (2021 : University of North Florida) – Posters; University of North Florida -- Students -- Research – Posters; University of North Florida. Office of Undergraduate Research; University of North Florida. Graduate School; College students – Research -- Florida – Jacksonville – Posters; University of North Florida – Undergraduates -- Research – Posters; University of North Florida. Coggin College of Business -- Research – Posters; University of North Florida. College of Computing; Engineering & Construction -- Research -- Posters

Abstract

Renewable energy adoption is on the rise in the U.S. and abroad. More than ever, energy sourcing needs to shift away from harmful fossil fuels and towards fully renewable energy sources. Adapting from traditional fossil fuel energy sources to renewable energy sources is paramount for environmental health and public health. Fossil fuels emit harmful pollutants, which have led to changing weather conditions and exasperated natural disasters. Existing renewable sources are not ideal, either. For instance, solar cannot run continuously and wind turbines are subject to weather changes. The recent energy debacle in Texas shows the need for alternative renewable energy sources. The Osprey C.R.E.W. wave energy converter (WEC) alleviates many of the current problems existing renewable energy systems cannot solve. First, it provides reliable and constant service. With other renewable energy services, there will be stops in production. However, there are no stops in wave energy because the waves are constant. Another positive of the WEC device is that their deployments are flexible and scalable. This means that energy production levels can be changed rapidly and without delay. The average cost per device falls significantly with seamless scalability, making large increments of devices procured in a relatively cost-effective manner. Cost comparisons between competing energy sources show that the WEC is very cost-efficient as well. The cost of producing wave energy is found to be more efficient than solar energy and wind alternatives. Our cost figures also show that Osprey C.R.E.W provides a very competitive alternative to the primary fossil fuel producers such as coal and fuel.

Comments

Audio Presentation Transcript:

Today we need green energy more now than ever to prevent further damage from use of fossil fuels that emit harmful pollutants that not only harm the environment but harm Public Health. Advancements in technology has led to ample opportunities for green energy as well as some opportunities to come from the post covid-19 environment. The current Administration is very eager to support renewable energy production and there is a growing sentiment and desire for more renewable energy sources among the public. The Osprey CREW wave energy converter is among the many devices that can be used to help lower our carbon footprint. Our wave energy converter is a linear generator that consists of a small buoy and a housing relative to the incident wavelength. Current alternatives for wave energy production such as solar and wind have run into issues with reliability as sudden changes in weather can lead to sudden loss of generation and changes in long-term weather patterns can have disastrous results for residents as we just saw with the Texas energy crisis. Since wave and Tide conditions are more predictable our wave energy converter proves to be more reliable than other green energy generators while maintaining the flexibility and scalability of alternatives. when analyzing the cost of CREW’s wave energy converter we’ve made the following assumptions. First the wave energy farm is designed for a 20-year life cycle and an assumed discount rate 8% will be used. The total cost of producing wave energy is categorized into two components those being Capital expenditures and operational expenditures. our total Capital expenditures are estimated to be roughly 25 million and our operational expenditures are estimated to be about 3 million. So how do we compare the cost of CREW’s device to alternative green energy generators? We use one key metric called the levelized cost of energy to compare different energy sources. The levelized cost of energy takes into account the total cost of a generator over an assumed lifetime. Our levelized cost of energy is 51.69 whereas other renewable energy sources range from 67.68 to 101.43. On the other hand the levelized cost of combustion based generation ranges from 32.57-44.40. shows that our device provides a very competitive renewable energy alternative. the end users of our product can be categorized into two main groups. primary customers being offshore operations such as drilling, mining, farming, and exploration that suffer from high offshore energy production costs. Our secondary customers will be utility-scale customers. However, not every utility can benefit from wave generated electricity so CREW will specifically Target Utilities in favorable regions such as Alaska, the west coast, and the Northeast Coast that have aggressive renewable requirements requiring more reliable renewable energy generation. CREW Stands out in cost, reliability, it’s simplistic design requiring less maintenance than competitors, ease of deployment, as well as having mobile and stationary options. These benefits leads CREW to believe will be a high adoption rate among our primary Market as well as an opportunity to penetrate utility scale markets

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