Topic 6. Potentials of ocean renewable energy in the Indonesian Seas (ORE-12)

About 80% of the global energy consumption is supplied by fossil fuels. In the face of the climate change, sea level rise and the ongoing depletion of the mineral resources much effort is made worldwide to use renewable resources of energies. The conversion of wave power and tidal current power is recently growing up to a crucial sector of renewable ocean energy. Particularly the use of tidal power which is based on the relative motion and gravitational fields of earth, moon and sun is attractive to be used as its availability is predictable.
In this regard the National Energy Council (NEC) of Indonesia has declared its intention to increase the role of ocean renewable energy in the national energy mix. In the framework of SPICE III the joint German-Indonesian project "Ocean Renewable Energy ORE-12" aims at the identification of marine environments in the Indonesian Archipelago, which are suitable for the efficient generation of electric power by converter facilities. The converters shall be driven by tidal currents and waves. Project partners are the University of Kiel (Research and Technology Centre FTZ), the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), the Indonesian Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) and the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (KKP). The company Voith Hydro Ocean Current Technologies, which is experienced in the construction of tidal power converters, agreed to provide consult. For the preliminarily selection of suitable areas for ORE development in Indonesia the German radar system SAR of the TerraSAR-X satellite is applied to detect and classify wind fields, currents and waves.
In addition to hydrographic data provided by international organizations such as NOAA, OCEANOR and ECMWF, in situ field measurements of currents, waves, sediment transport and bed evolution will be carried out in the promising sites in Indonesia. A computer-based "Decision Support System" (DSS) will be set up to process, to analyze and to evaluate the results of the numerical simulations of flow, waves and sediment transport in order to identify best sites for the use of ORE. The deliverables of the project comprise strategies for characterization of ORE-resources; a DSS with integrated GIS-database for storage, processing and visualization of data, process based numerical models for currents, waves, sediment transport and morphodynamics as well as results of calculations concerning the electric power yield in the selected marine environments. Besides this investigation strategies for Environmental Impact Assessment of the effects of the operation of power converters on the marine environment will be developed.