Wavetrain 2 : Deliverable 28: Final Report WP 9 – Case studies development: Public policies and socio-economic and environmental impacts

This deliverable presents a selection of case studies on socio-economic aspects of wave energy, developed by Wavetrain2 partners SPOK and WavEC, that represent key areas of research during the WT2 period. More information and a few other case studies can be also found in the previous deliverables D9 and D19.
The first case study looks into the impact of integrating of wave energy into electricity markets. From the results it is expected that the costs of balancing wave power are smaller than those faced currently by wind power, and that any combination of wave technologies and wave and wind technologies will reduce these costs.The results of this work will be presented in a paper and an oral presentation at ICOE2012, the International Conference on Ocean Energy, to be held in Dublin on October 2012 (2). This study is part of a collaborative project among Spok ApS, Aalborg University and Energinet Denmark (the Danish TSO) and counts with the interest and collaboration of the wave device developers Pelamis, Wave Dragon and Wavestar.
The second case study assesses the macro-economic impact of the introduction of a 100MW farm in Portugal. An Input-Output model based on Leontief theory was developed by WavEC with the collaboration of the national expert Prof. Pedro Ramos (University of Coimbra) for assessing potential jobs and value added created if supporting the development of renewable energy projects at national and EU level. This model was applied by S. Saygi with the supervision of A. Raventos to the case study of a 100MW farm of Pelamis devices installed in the coast of Portugal.
A third case study refers to the application of the WavEC Techno-Economic Model for technology and project feasibility assessment to one particular wave energy technology. Due to confidential issues the results of this study cannot be shown. Basically the model follows a modular structure for assessing the desired outputs (CAPEX, OPEX; LCOE, IRR, NPV). Backed-up with WavEC cost database, it requires the selection of a specific location and the parameterization of a certain technology and farm depending on some design variables to assess the output indicators before-mentioned.
The fourth case study resumes the information presented in the Wavetrain2 Course on socio-economic impacts of offshore renewables. The course was given by Wavetrain2 fellow A. Raventos and Senior Experts from Wavetrain2 partners Dr. Gordon Dalton (HMRC) and Hans C. Sorensen (SPOK). It included 3 main parts: a first introduction to microeconomics at project level, a second practical session on the use of economic model Retscreen and a final session introducing macro and socio-economic aspects.