EquiMar : Equitable Testing and Evaluation of Marine Energy Extraction Devices in terms of Performance, Cost and Environmental Impact: Deliverable D3.3 Assessment of current practice for tank testing of small marine energy devices

At present no common practices are adopted to assess the performance and operational characteristics of conceptual and small prototype wave and tidal energy devices when tested within controlled laboratory environments. Information acquired from this early stage assessment may be used to secure development funding or promote a specific wave or tidal energy device. Since no standards exist, the data produced may be misinterpreted or inaccurately presented, which in turn may lead to failure to live up to performance expectations, as devices scale up in size. This report aims to identify limitations of current practices adopted for tank testing of small prototype devices and the development of new methods enabling device performance assessment and benchmarking. The contents of this report will be tightly integrated with the remaining deliverables of WP 3, specifically Deliverable 3.4.a