Blue Power

The blue economy is an emerging sector that will require energy to allow many scientific and commercial endeavors to reach their potential. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office seeks to understand marine and coastal opportunities for which marine energy could fulfill those energy needs. This report documents the material gathered during a year-long fact-finding effort engaging users and developers, through literature review, workshops, interviews, and national lab analyses, as well as a Request for Information process. Each market was assessed by a set of common analyses: opportunity summary; application description and power requirements; market description, power options, and geographic relevance; marine energy potential value proposition; and path forward including research and development needs and potential partners. The major finding is that there are more markets with potential than anticipated, both for Power at Sea (including ocean observation and navigation, underwater vehicle charging, marine aquaculture, marine algae, and seawater mining), and Resilient Coastal Communities (including desalination, coastal resiliency and disaster recovery, and community-scale isolated power systems). The enabling attributes of marine energy resources include that they are abundant, geographically diverse, energy dense, predictable, and complementary to other energy sources. This report can help direct analysis and research and development efforts by government, scientists, developers, and other stakeholders to more deeply understand and meet specific technical and economic requirements to power emerging opportunities in the blue economy.