Abstract
Ocean renewable technologies have been rapidly developing over the past years. However, current high installation, operation, maintenance, and decommissioning costs are hindering these offshore technologies to reach a commercialization stage. In this paper we focus on the use of divers and remotely-operated vehicles during the installation and monitoring phase of wave energy converters. Methods and results are based on the wave energy converter system developed by Uppsala University, and our experience in offshore deployments obtained during the past eleven years. The complexity of underwater operations, carried out by either divers or remotely-operated vehicles, is emphasized. Three methods for the deployment of wave energy converters are economically and technically analyzed and compared: one using divers alone, a fully-automated approach using remotely-operated vehicles, and an intermediate approach, involving both divers and underwater vehicles. The monitoring of wave energy converters by robots is also studied, both in terms of costs and technical challenges. The results show that choosing an autonomous deployment method is more advantageous than a diver-assisted method in terms of operational time, but that numerous factors prevent the wide application of robotized operations. Technical solutions are presented to enable the use of remotely-operated vehicles instead of divers in ocean renewable technology operations. Economically, it is more efficient to use divers than autonomous vehicles for the deployment of six or fewer wave energy converters. From seven devices, remotely-operated vehicles become advantageous.
Highlights
Offshore renewable energy conversion technologies, offshore wind, tidal, and wave, are developed broadly around the world, but some remain at an experimental stage in contrast to the level of exploitation of the offshore oil and gas (O&G) industry
In 1973 the European standard from the European Diving Technology Committee [34] was established in order to promote proper and safe standards for commercial diving, provide a means of improvement, if appropriate, and coordinate, where possible, the different standards which existed around the world
High personal safety is of general importance and interest for high risk tasks, such as diving and ought to be improved, whereas shorter operational times are of economic relevance for offshore operations
Summary
Offshore renewable energy conversion technologies, offshore wind, tidal, and wave, are developed broadly around the world, but some remain at an experimental stage in contrast to the level of exploitation of the offshore oil and gas (O&G) industry. Today’s techniques used to deploy and maintain an offshore renewable power plant are predominantly imitating the O&G industry [1]. With more advanced equipment, commercial diving has been applied within the shipping industry for inspection and maintenance, e.g., in the offshore O&G industry and in the fish farming industry [29,30,31,32]. As the marine renewable energy sector of wind, wave, and tidal power emerged and developed, commercial diving finds a new utilization within the offshore renewable energy conversion technologies sector [33].
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