Former Lunch Lectures

23 October 2017

Watch the lecture via Collegerama here.

Watch the presentation here

This event provided a comprehensive update on the status and deployment opportunities of ocean energy technologies aiming to raise awareness and triggered engagement to explore the potential and accelerate the deployment of ocean energy and other renewable energy technologies and to advance the global climate agenda.

Dr. Roland Roesch is Senior Programme Officer - RE Markets and Technology Dialogue at International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Before Roland became in October 2010 a Professor he worked for 15 years in the Oil&Gas and Utilities Industry for Shell and E.ON in his last position as General Manager Power at Shell and for E.ON as Head of Division, Project Leader, Project Executive and Technical Project Developer. Before he joined E.ON he worked as Energy Market Consultant for Lahmeyer International and as researcher for renewable energies. Roland has solid business experience in energy markets, energy economics and energy strategies, renewable integration management, energy project development and project financing. He currently leads amongst other the IRENA Renewable Energy Project Development Guideline initiative known as IRENA Project Navigator and IRENAs work related to Renewable Energy Technology Innovation.

26 June

Compared to other renewable sources of energy, tidal energy is highly predictable. Tidal stream turbines are likely to prove more cost-effective, and have minimal impact on the local marine biodiversity compared to the tidal ranges (or dams). However, the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) from tidal stream turbines is far higher compared to the grid average, and needs to be brought down significantly to make energy generation from tidal turbines an economically viable option.
The main objective of the TIPA (Tidal turbine Power take-off Accelerator) project, led by Nova Innovation Limited, is to design and demonstrate a next-generation cost-effective and reliable power take-off (PTO) system for tidal stream turbines. In addition to Nova Innovation and TU Delft, other partners include University of Edinburgh, RWTH Aachen University, Siemens, SKF and Wood Group.
The aim is to reduce the LCOE of tidal power by 20% compared to present market values. The three main strategies to achieve this are: 

• By improving performance and efficiency over the existing conventional PTO by using a direct drive generator, eliminating losses due to a gearbox.
• By improving the reliability of the system so that the service and maintenance interval is increased beyond 2 years.
• By ensuring that the device has an expected lifetime of >20 years by subjecting it to accelerated lifetime testing prior to deployment.

In this talk, Faisal Wani shall briefly present the state-of-the-art in the tidal turbine industry, and the current challenges faced by the tidal turbine manufacturers in their efforts to economically exploit tidal energy. The focus of the talk shall be to present the recent trends adopted in the industry to increase the efficiency, reliability and survivability of the tidal PTO systems. Faisal Wani is currently pursuing his PhD in Electrical Sustainable Energy Department at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, TU Delft. His supervisors are Dr. ir. H. Polinder and Prof. dr. J. A. Ferreira.

22 MAY

The energy crises in 1973 when cars were not allowed to drive on Sundays in Denmark made a strong impression on me and new ways to generate power independent of oil was in the back of my head during my years of studies at the Technical University of Denmark.
One day in 1977 we had a lecture on water turbines in a course on hydraulics. We were taught that water turbines could produce power proportional to the flow times the height of the waterfall – quite simple and easy to visualize - what a pity Denmark is flat and without any water falls I thought. During the night I woke up with a vision of a water head equal to the water depth over the seabed

• could the water pressure at the seabed be used to drive a turbine?  The ocean waves on the sea surface appeared in my mind
• could the surface waves activate pumps and create a flow through the turbine?

I made a few drawings of wave pumps and some simple calculations on how much power could be generated. I studied at the department of ocean engineering and I had planned to design a sailing boat. However my teacher was not that impressed – don’t you have some other topic you could work on? – Well - I had to confess, I had an idea on how to generate power from waves. There you see he said - not everybody has such an idea, so why don’t you start working on that idea - I did.

This lecture will outline the developments in Wave Energy in this 40 year perspective.

• Presentation
• Delta Article

24 April

The high level targets for the ocean energy sector are to bring ocean bring ocean energy to commercial deployment, to drive down the levelised cost of energy (LCoE), to maintain and grow Europe’s leading position in ocean energy and to strengthen the European industrial technology base, thereby creating economic growth and jobs in Europe and allowing Europe to compete on a global stage. But to reach these high level targets still many steps in Research and technology development are needed. In this lunch time lecture attention will be given to the European Commission's activities (Energy Union, SETplan, Horizon 2020 EU projects, Ocean energy Forum) related to Ocean Energy, and its perspective on the challenges ahead and need for research and development in order to accelerate its implementation.

• Watch lecture
• Presentation

27 March

Tropical islands have great access to traditional renewable energy sources, like wind and solar energy, and a high sense of urgency to make a transition. Therefore they can become the global frontrunners in the transition to 100% renewable energy. So what are we waiting for? 
Unfortunately islands often don't have the luxury of an interconnection to a large grid and the lack of effective storage solutions limits the penetration of intermittent wind and solar energy. Also, space requirements of these renewable energy technologies make a widespread deployment on many islands unfeasible. So, is it possible to reach 100% renewable energy on islands?
In this lunch lecture Msc. Anne-Marije Zwerver will take you along in the transition to 100% renewable energy. She will explain the potential of integrating ocean energy in the energy mix of tropical islands and demonstrate it with a case study

• Watch lecture

27 Jan

How to make the offshore industry sustainable?  What challenges do we face and to which one should we respond? How the social media can be employed for soliciting ideas globally? What is Our Ocean Challenge? What are examples of submitted solutions? What next? are examples of questions which Mirek will answer in the first part of his lecture. He will continue with sharing his experience with contributing to OOC and repeat his call for action. Finally, he will present an idea of how the offshore industry can preserve the existing global hydrocarbon-driven transportation means and infrastructure and, in the same time, can lower the global emission of carbon dioxide.

• Watch lecture

23 Jan

The NWO project aims to provide in insight in hydro-dynamical effects of Horizontal Axis Tidal Turbines (HATTs) in complex geometries, by setting up an accurate numerical model. The model should link the turbulent flow through a hydraulic geometry featuring HATTs and basin scale flow. The modelling choices will be based on an experimental and numerical investigation of HATTs. The project focusses on the situation near the Eastern Scheldt storm surge barrier (The Netherlands), where in November 2015 five HATTs are implemented. Partners in this research are: Rijkswaterstaat, Tocardo International BV, Blue Turbines BV, Deltares, Tidal Testing Centre, Witteveen+Bos BV and  Svašek Hydraulics BV. The project runs from 2016 to 2020.

Merel Verbeek does her PhD at the Fluid Mechanics department of the Civil Engineering Faculty, her supervisors are Dr.ir. R.J. Labeur and Prof.dr.ir. W.S.J. Uijttewaal.

• Delta Article

28 Nov

Offshore wind energy is growing fast, with more farms installed in increasingly deeper waters and farther from the shores. Today, all commercialised offshore wind turbines are directly mounted on the seabed. This is economically viable in waters typically shallower than 60 meters. Beyond this depth, floating wind turbines moored to the seabed could be an attractive solution to decrease cost.The development of the world's first floating pilot wind park off the coast of Scotland confirms that floating offshore wind energy is technologically feasible. However, it presents new technological challenges compared to fixed-bottom wind turbines. This lecture will give an overview of the main challenges when developing floating wind turbines and some recent research on the development of high-fidelity numerical tools to model their dynamics.

• Presentation
• Delta Article

24 Oct

For over 10 years Knowledge Centre WMC has been performing research and services for the wind industry. This experience is now being used in research on ocean current turbines as well. The presentation will treat the following subjects:

- Full-scale testing of tidal turbine blades
- Experimental/numerical characterization of hygrothermal ageing in composite laminates
- Simulation of loads on ocean current turbines with the FOCUS6 software package.

• Presentation

26 Sept

In the transition to a clean energy future, it is essential to develop and mobilize all forms of renewable energy in a competitive and sustainable manner. Marine energy is a renewable resource which generates energy from marine sources and has a tremendous potential to contribute to the global energy mix. In order to unleash this potential, all players in the marine energy sector should work together to lower existing barriers in technological development, product demonstration and commercialization.

• Presentation
• Watch the lecture

27 June

In this lunch lecture, Anton de Fockert will give an overview of recent developments in various fields of marine renewable energy (MRE) at Deltares. The focus will be on tidal energy. Wave energy, OTEC and salinity gradient energy (blue-energy) will also be mentioned. The aim of our research is to develop tools to estimate the impact of MRE farms on the environment, and to optimize the energy production of the farm. The first step concerns the hydraulic conditions, which provide input for the design of the MRE device, and for the environmental impact studies (ecology, sediment, etc). The overview includes the typical techniques used and the challenges that are faced in these fields.

• Presentation
• Watch the lecture

30 May

The presentation will tell how 12 strong offshore & dredging companies and institutes, including Damen, Bluewater and van Oord, joined forces in a fantastic collaboration to develop the first BlueTEC floating tidal energy system, build it in the Netherlands and installed near Texel in 2015. During the second half of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016, it was the only installation in the world at full sea that was producing electricity from the tides into an onshore grid.
It will conclude by looking forward how a new company founded recently has the mission to bring clean energy to the world, it aims to employ professionals of the offshore oil&gas industry who want to use their use their skills and experience to develop clean energy solutions. The company’s name, Oceans of Energy, refers to the unlimited amounts of clean energy that can be generated from sun and wind, as well as its specific skills in ocean energy.

• Presentation
• Watch the lecture

25 April

For over 80 years, MARIN has been contributing to the development of safe and economic ships and offshore structures as independent advisor in hydrodynamic and nautical research. This is done through model tests, simulations, desk studies, full-scale measurements, safety studies and training. At the same time MARIN considers it her responsibility to contribute to the development of offshore renewable energy from waves, tide and wind. For this MARIN launched RENT (Renewable Energy Team), a MARIN-wide team of specialists covering all the aspects needed to make offshore renewable energy a success.

Besides involvement in offshore wind, the RENT team is involved in the hydrodynamic design of wave and tidal energy for which the challenges are very similar to those of the offshore industry: safe and economic design, production, transportation, installation, maintenance, repair and removal. The presentation will give an overview of experimental modelling at MARIN of wave, tidal and floating wind energy.

• Presentation

21 March

TOCARDO International BV is a Netherlands based tidal - and river turbine manufacturer which technology has been demonstrated since 2008. In 2015, the Den Oever-based company installed a 1.2 MW array of 5 T2 turbines in the Eastern Scheldt (Oosterschelde) storm surge barrier, part of the famous Dutch Delta Works. Earlier that year, three linked turbines were installed in the Afsluitdijk, a 30 km long primary sea defense in the Netherlands, with a total capacity of 300 kW while another turbine in the Afsluitdijk has been providing electricity for over seven years now. Its first offshore floating project at the Island of Texel in The Netherlands has been deployed as well. Tocardo’s technology stands for robustness, reliability and simplicity.

This presentation will give an introduction to Tocardo’s Tidal Projects as well as the design and operational features of a Tidal Stream Turbine. The design of a tidal turbine is governed by the consideration that it has to operate in a submarine environment where maintenance is very difficult. Hence, its components should be made as simple as possible. Other challenges include for instance the relatively low inertia of a tidal turbine compared to the mass of water flowing through the rotor which makes the rotor spinning velocity follow water velocity fluctuations very rapidly. The goal of the presentation is to shortly explain the design philosophy and to highlight the challenges met and the trade-offs included in the design of a tidal turbine.

22 Feb

Traditional agricultural soils become exhausted, and more humans have to be fed with high value proteins and enough energy for a comfortable life. Marine microalgae, seaweeds and salt-tolerant landplants grow on solar energy, CO2, dissolved inorganic nutrients in seawater, and produce valuable biomass and oxygen. Oceans and seas on earth offer many possibilities for a truly sustainable and efficient production of plant biomass, that can be used as source for food, feed, chemicals and energy. Before this scenario can come true, many questions have to be answered such as how much marine plant biomass can be produced, how can that be done in an ecologically right manner and how can we select more productive strains. Answering these question opens the way for a very attractive perspective: valuable plant food production, cleaner seas and oceans, increased marine biodiversity and an (almost) unlimited source of CO2-neutral energy. It is a major scientific and societal challenge to collect physiological, ecological and genetical fundamental scientific knowledge and to share this with companies. Thereby enabling a transition to a marine bio-based economy.

• Presentation

25 Jan

AbstractOcean waves comprise high energy levels, which have inspired many people to invent mechanical devices to harvest wave energy. The first generation of wave energy converters have had a number of forms, but all are essentially large steel structures concentrating the power take off onto small mechanical devices. A number of prototype devices have been installed offshore, but due to their high fabrication and installation costs, coupled with significant maintenance requirements, the production of electricity at an acceptable cost has remained elusive. To avoid the limitations of these devices, a second generation wave energy converter is being developed using electro active polymers (EAP), which are capable of generating electricity directly from wave action without the need for any mechanical power take off. The resulting system is flexible and possesses an infinite number of degrees of freedom, allowing wave energy to be captured more efficiently than with conventional devices.  Deployed offshore, such a device would have no complex mechanical parts, would function silently, and would require minimal maintenance. The economics of such a system lead to predictions of a cost of electricity significantly below the levels of the first generation devices. The talk will address the principles of energy conversion using EAP, the application of EAP to wave energy conversion and highlight the positive impact on the economics of wave energy conversion by involving this new type of smart materials.

23 Nov

Teamwork Technology developed several sustainable energy technologies. Amongst them is wave energy.  Until 2009 they were responsible for, The Archimedes Waveswing, a project that was started in 1993. It was installed at full scale in Portugal. Recently we renewed our interest in wave energy. By introducing the Symphony wave power technology, a new project is started.

• Abstract
• Article Delta
• Presentation

26 Oct

• Presentaton
• Article Delta

28 Sept

Peter Peter Scheijgrond is one of the ambassadors for the international ocean energy sector having worked in this field for over 18 years and bringing cohesion and cooperation in the ‘energy from water’ sector. He is one of the founding board members of the Dutch Energy from Water Association (EWA) and an acting observer to the Implementing Agreement on Ocean Energy Systems of the International Energy Agency (IEA-OES). He currently chairs the IEC TC-114 Dutch mirror committee on the development of new standards for marine energy convertors. While his primary experience and expertise lies in the development of tidal stream, tidal barrage and wave energy projects, he has also been involved in hydropower, OTEC, aquatic biomass and Salinity Gradient projects and studies.
Through his own company MET-support (Marine Energy Technologies support), he currently works for Bluewater Energy Services on the development of a floating structure for tidal turbines, for Tidal Testing Centre (TTC) on site development and permitting, and he is secretary to the EU EIP Action Group on Energy from Water Works.He holds engineering degrees from the University of Glasgow, the Glasgow School of Art, Strathclyde University and University of Applied Sciences Groningen. Previously with Ecofys, over a period of 12 years he developed and demonstrated the Wave Rotor technology. As part of a spin-out company OceanMill, the Wave Rotor technology and rights were sold to offshore contractor IHC in 2012.

• Link to Scheijgrond

22 June

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) is a method for generating electricity using the temperature difference between the hot surface water and the cold deep water in the ocean. OTEC is capable of generating electricity day and night, year-round. The technology is viable primarily in equatorial areas where the year-round temperature differential is at least 20 degree Celsius. Next to producing electricity, OTEC also offers the possibility of co-generating other products, like efficient seawater air-conditioning (SWAC), fresh water and nutrients for fish farming and algae production.
During the colloquium, Dr. Carlos Infante Ferreira will share some of the ongoing OTEC research at Process & Energy and opportunities for new research. TU Delft MSc graduate student Vilborg Gudjonsdottir will introduce her research on the theoretical modelling and experimental testing of the OTEC system in off-design conditions, which is under supervision of Dr. Carlos Infante Ferreira and part of her Master in Sustainable Process & Energy Technology (SPET).

• Berend Jan Kleute
• Carlos Ferreira
• Vilborg Guðjónsdóttir