Simulating Ocean and Tidal Current Power Plants with Homer

Andrea Fischer¹, Jones S. Silva², Alexandre Beluco², Luiz Emílio B. Almeida²

¹Instituto Federal Sul Riograndense (IFSUL), Pelotas, RS, Brazil.
²Instituto de Pesquisas Hidráulicas, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, Brazil.

DOI: 10.4236/cweee.2015.43005                

Abstract

The oceans can provide us with several direct sources of renewable energy, such as wave energy, energy from currents and energy in thermal gradients among other energy resources. The uses of these resources have not yet reached technical and economic maturity, but they have experienced significant advances in recent years. In this process, tools for feasibility analysis of hybrid systems including specific power plants are important. This article is dedicated to the feasibility study of hybrid systems containing power plants based on the energy of ocean and tidal currents. The software currently available for feasibility studies do not present specific models already developed for the simulation of this kind of power plants. Thus, this technical note shows how Homer software (Legacy version) can be used to conduct this type of study in pre-feasibility level. This article also presents a case study in which Homer is applied, focused only on Homer adaptation but without exhausting the subject, showing a feasibility window that would include current power plants with certain cost and efficiency in an existing PV wind biodiesel hybrid system.

Keywords

Ocean Energy, Ocean Current Energy, Tidal Current Energy, Computational Simulation, Feasibility Study, Software Homer

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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