Deliverable D4.2 “Stage Gate Tools – alpha version” of the DTOceanPlus project includes the details of the Stage Gate Design Tool, and it represents the result of the work developed during task T4.2 of the project. This tool is an application of a stage gate process which is used in research and industry to provide structure to the technology development process. This approach supports the R&D pathway towards producing reliable and cost-effective ocean energy sub-systems, devices and arrays.

This document serves as the technical manual of the alpha version of the energy capture module, including all the data requirements, main functions, interfaces and all the pertinent technical details describing the alpha version of the module for the energy capture of an array of wave energy converters or tidal energy converters.

The aim of this document is to present the activity carried out by the four industrial partners who validated the DTOcean+ suite against five wave energy validation scenarios.

A coherent set of functional and technical requirements have been developed for the DTOceanPlus suite of design tools based on analysis of gaps between the current state-of-the-art tools, learning from the original DTOcean project, and the stakeholder expectations identified in the user consultation survey. The technical requirements in this document are translated from the general requirements for the overall suite of tools, and specific requirements (functional, operational, user, interfacing, and data) for the Structured Innovation design tool that has been developed as part of this project. These requirements relate to detailed technical requirements of the technology and environment, for the development, maintenance, support and execution of the software specifications to best meet the needs of the ocean energy industry.

This report describes the methodology used to define the “validation scenarios”, accounting for the different potential use cases. Given the large number of permutations of tools, use cases, and the set of minimum validation requirements, the number of validation scenarios has been reduced to a number that can be run during the life of the DTOceanPlus project but that are sufficient to fully demonstrate the functionality of the DTOceanPlus suite of tools. The selection process, based on a successive approximation approach, has led to the cases that the potential users in the DTOceanPlus consortium have considered as the most relevant for the sector. In Section 4 of the document, the selected validation scenarios is described; the definition of these scenarios has been completed during the project to ensure that the most updated information is used.

Ocean energy is a relevant source of clean renewable energy, and as it is still facing challenges related to its above grid-parity costs, tariffs intended to support in a structured and coherent way are of great relevance and potential impact. The logistics and marine operations required for installing and maintaining these systems are major cost drivers of marine renewable energy projects. Planning the logistics of marine energy projects is a highly complex and intertwined process, and to date, limited advances have been made in the development of decision support tools suitable for ocean energy farm design. The present paper describes the methodology of a novel, opensource, logistic and marine operation planning tool, integrated within DTOceanPlus suite of design tools, and responsible for producing logistic solutions comprised of optimal selections of vessels, port terminals, equipment, as well as operation plans, for ocean energy projects. Infrastructure selection logistic functions were developed to select vessels, ports, and equipment for specific projects. A statistical weather window model was developed to estimate operation delays due to weather. A vessel charter rate modeling approach, based on an in-house vessel database and industry experience, is described in detail. The overall operation assumptions and underlying operating principles of the statistical weather window model, maritime infrastructure selection algorithms, and cost modeling strategies are presented. Tests performed for a case study based a theoretical floating wave energy converter produced results in good agreement with reality.

This report describes the methodology used to refine the validation scenarios and the compilation of required data inputs, accounting for the different potential use cases

This document includes the details of the logistics and marine operations module of the deployment design tools. This module is responsible for designing and planning the project lifecycle phases of an ocean energy project. Reflecting the most recent experiences and best practices of the offshore wind sector, this module produces integrated solutions in respect to logistic infrastructure, comprised of vessels, equipment and ports, as well as operation durations and costs based on introduced historical weather data.

This report is the outcome of an analysis of potential markets for ocean energy technology. The aim was to develop a greater understanding of the potential markets for the deployment and the exploitation of these technologies. The focus includes both the present market status and future opportunities for commercialisation of both grid and non-grid applications.

This document serves as the technical manual of the alpha version of the energy delivery module, including all the data requirements, main functions, interfaces and all pertinent technical details.