The Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center (NNMREC) is a DOE-funded partnership between Oregon State University and the University of Washington.

  • Oregon State University is responsible for wave energy issues.
  • University of Washington is responsble for tidal energy issues.
  • Both will collaborate on outreach activities and information dissmenation.

Vision

NNMREC has a full range of capabilities to support wave and tidal energy development for the United States. NNMREC is structured to:

  1. Close key gaps in understanding through the support of baseline studies, on-going monitoring, and setting the technical, ecological, and human dimensions standards for marine energy projects;
  2. Educate and mentor the next generation of marine energy-related scientists, engineers, and educators in the U.S;
  3. Facilitate device commercialization through development of standards for validation and evaluation of devices;
  4. Inform regulatory and policy decisions, and;
  5. Inform and engage industry, science, and the public.
NNMREC serves as an integrated, standardized test center for U.S. and international developers of wave and tidal energy. Here, device and array optimization can be tested for effective deployment of wave and tidal energy technologies, improved forecasting of the wave energy resource can be made, and studies leading to the increased reliability and survivability of marine energy systems can be realized. NNMREC also evaluates the potential ecosystem and human dimensions impacts. It focuses on the compatibility of marine energy technologies with ocean and coastal environments and coastal users.

Activities

Tidal energy activities are structured around four key areas:

  1. Instrumentation for cost-effective characterization of sites and devices
  2. Optimization of arrays with respect to device orientation and placement
  3. Modeling of environmental effects of extraction for both near-field and far-field
  4. Improved reliability and survavibility of devices through use of advanced composites

Funding

Research at UW-NNMREC is supported through grants, contracts, and fellowships:

  • UW-NNMREC core grant - US Department of Energy - $1.25M over 5 years (50% non-federal cost share)
  • 2010 Congressionally Directed Project - US Department of Energy
  • Industry-led consortia (US Department of Energy FOAs) (2009, 2010)
  • National Laboratory-led consortia (US Department of Energy FOAs) (2009)
  • Private donors - Martin Marine Fellowship (2010-2012)