Working Group 4

 

Impacts and economics of wave energy and how they affect decision- and policy-making

The activities of WECANet aim to reduce decision uncertainties for wave energy investments and contribute in enhancing investor’s confidence by dealing with: identification of resource, deployment; environmental aspects that affect WECs farms; regulatory frameworks, and examine the social acceptance of WEC farms. Furthermore, WG4 aims to identify the markets that WECs can be competitively incorporated and have rapid deployment rates, reduce the uncertainties Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCoE), Capital and Operational Expenditures (CApEX-OpEX) across different WECs, and  assess the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) as a useful metric to help in device convergence. WG4 aims to develop  evaluation of tools which target key decision-investment barriers; creation of industry guidelines to be used for project development; supply chains; bottlenecks; incorporating the feedback on the needs of industry; public acceptance; socio-economic; environmental impacts (e.g. on marine ecosystems, fisheries); multi-parameter problems and optimisation techniques.

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As a result, the introduction of systematic approaches shall improve investor confidence; going beyond the scope on technological barriers and incorporating non-technological assessments, the way in which non-technological barriers affect the development of the wave energy sector. WG4 aims at a better understanding of the nontechnological aspects affecting the sector, which is a key objective of WECANet.