Debate – Design for robustness or cost?

Early ocean energy prototypes were primarily designed for robustness, owing to the limited knowledge about long-term behaviour of components and environmental conditions. With more data now being available, and with multi-device arrays and pre-commercial farms entering the water, the challenge has shifted: how to reduce costs while ensuring reliability?

This session will examine the trade-offs in wave and tidal technologies, addressing dimensioning, safety factors, material choices and other critical aspects of design.

Chair: Julian Röder, Chief Engineer Component Design and Testing, Center for Wind Power Drives (RWTH Aachen)