Background: Energy production is clearly in the public eye at the moment. While there are short-term issues, clearly a long-term vision needs to be developed to reduce dependency on oil and gas. This project will look at one or more possible future energy sources, from a technical perspective.
Wind and hydro power are now well-established as alternative energy sources. Solar-PV has had a limited success in contributing to a serious energy budget. Recent research is focussing on wave and tidal energy sources, this makes sense since the oceans are so vast and powerful. This project will specifically focus on wave and / or tidal energy.
Aims: (i) To research and understand models of wave/tidal energy production. (ii) To develop a simulator of the chosen model, to allow exploration of the model’s features. (iii) To subject the chosen model to a quantitative (scientific) analysis.
Objectives: I would expect a discussion of current alternative energy sources and to relate wave/tidal to these. The rest are for you to decide but these must be linked to your simulator, and primary data collection.
Secondary Data: Data from research papers on wave/tidal energy installations and their results. The US ‘National Renewable Research Laboratory’ (NREL) has a number of useful projects which you should know about.
Primary Data: Measurements from your model, how much energy it develops from specific wave/tidal data (from your Lit. Review).
Ethical Approval: Straightforward. Does not involve people.
