Innovation in Grid Connection and Control of Offshore Renewable Energy Systems

Dear Colleagues,

There is increasing interest in offshore renewable energies to harvest the energy available in oceans, but there are still many technological barriers to overcome. Offshore wind capacity is set to increase by at least 15-fold worldwide by 2040, while, ocean energy, which focuses mainly on wave and tidal energy, is said to have a global market potential of 337 GW of installed capacity in 2050 and would power 10% of Europe’s power consumption.

Effective controls are needed for the optimization of energy production, and are also essential in the improvement of reliability and can help to lengthen the remaining life of the devices. In the near future, large amounts of energy will need to be transmitted across long distances in the sea, and the power extracted from such variable resources represents a challenge in terms of grid compatibility. The use of energy storage solutions along with the control strategy can be useful to improve power quality. There are relatively few well-established regulations to follow, as some of the reference documents are still at a draft stage, but grid codes will soon include specific requirements for offshore renewable systems.

This Special Issue of Energies is dedicated to ‘Innovation in Grid Connection and Control of Offshore Renewable Energy Systems’ (fixed and floating offshore wind, wave and tidal). Recent research in offshore wind has demonstrated that classical onshore control strategies are not suitable for floating offshore wind turbines, and, therefore, papers exploring new alternatives are encouraged.

Topics of interest for publication include, but are not limited to the following:

• Wave energy conversion
• Tidal energy conversion
• Fixed and floating offshore wind energy conversion
• Multi-energy platform concepts and control
• Electric power generation, conversion, storage and transmission
• Modeling and simulation of offshore renewable generation
• Integration of offshore renewable energy into the power system
• Development of digital models of an offshore renewable energy facility and components
• Control strategies of offshore renewable energy devices
• Remaining life extension

The launch of this Special Issue is linked to the following activities:

1. The Joint Research Laboratory on Offshore Renewable Energy (JRL-ORE), is a scientific community made up of researchers from different institutions aiming to increase the level of the research results in terms of their impact in the business world and society in general regarding offshore renewable energies.

http://jrl-ore.com/

2. The Master in Renewable Energy in the Marine Environment (REM) is an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree (EMJMD) offered by four universities: University of the Basque Country (Coordinator), University of Strathclyde (UK), Norwegian University of Science and Technology, École Centrale de Nantes (France), which is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. Members of the JRL-ORE are involved in the teaching of the courses.

https://www.master-rem.eu/

3. The VII Marine Energy Conference that will be held in Bilbao next November 10th, will try to find a common ground between research and industry needs in the field of offshore renewable energy in the Basque Country. It is a meeting point between students, researchers, and companies.

http://jrl-ore.com/vii-marine-energy-conference-will-be-held-on-november-10th/

4. We will organize the European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference in 2023. More details in the future.

http://jrl-ore.com/bilbao-will-host-ewtec-in-2023/)

Published papers will receive special diffusion through our social media.

If you are interested in contributing to this Special Issue, please feel free to let me know.

Dr. Eider Robles Sestafe
Guest Editor

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