Opportunities
- Climate change mitigation. According to the International Energy Agency, globally, ocean energy could help mitigate the effects of climate change by reducing carbon emissions from fossil fuel-driven electricity generation by an estimated 500 million tons by 2050.
- Predictable and stable energy. Compared to other renewable energy sources, ocean energy provides more predictable and nearly continuous electrical generation. Ocean energy technologies could support and stabilize electrical grids that integrate other, more intermittent renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind.
- Offshore power. Ocean energy can provide locally sourced and reliable power to offshore industries, activities, and systems such as farming marine organisms, navigation, and deployed ocean sensors, which tend to rely on batteries that limit their range and usefulness.
- Support for coastal and rural island communities. Ocean energy could help meet the water and energy needs of rural coastal and island communities by providing locally sourced power for producing drinking water and reducing reliance on diesel generators, which are costly, emit carbon dioxide, and are vulnerable to supply disruption.
- Disaster Recovery. Ocean energy could aid natural disaster recovery in certain places by providing affected communities with a resilient source of energy. For example, ocean energy devices built in breakwaters could be protected during a disaster and thus able to provide those communities with desalinated water and electricity.
Challenges
- High costs. Ocean energy technologies are generally costlier than other renewable energy technologies because of high installation, operation, and maintenance costs. This reinforces a perception that ocean energy is risky, and makes it harder to find investors and insurance.
- Infrastructure. Ocean energy technologies face significant infrastructure challenges and underdeveloped supply chains. For example, connecting these devices to the electrical grid can be costly and some components will undergo considerable weathering.
- Regulatory challenges. The management of ocean and coastal activities involves multiple federal and state authorities. The resulting regulatory process can be lengthy and expensive.
- Environmental effects. The main environmental risks of ocean energy technologies include collision of marine life with underwater turbines, creation of underwater sound, and habitat changes. More research is needed to assess the long-term effect of ocean energy technologies on the environment and marine wildlife.
Policy Context and Questions
With several ocean energy technologies now powering coastal and island communities, some key questions for policymaker consideration include:
- What steps could policymakers take, such as assessing strategies to reduce deployment costs, to further integrate mature ocean energy technologies into regional electric grids?
- What analyses of incentives and barriers are needed to explore ways of stimulating private sector development of ocean energy infrastructure and supply chains?
- What actions could policymakers take to ensure adequate information is gathered to determine whether ocean energy technologies are ready for integration into disaster preparedness and response plans?
- What steps could policymakers take to ensure that sufficient data and analysis are available concerning the environmental effects of ocean energy technologies?
For more information, contact Karen Howard at (202) 512-6888 or HowardK@gao.gov.
Full Report
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Full Report (2 pages)