India can generate 12GW power from tidal energy

Tidal energy has potential in the country and with support from policy makers, it is headed for better times, Abdus Samad, Professor at Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Board member and mentor of Virya Paramita Energy Pvt Ltd, tells Sapna Gopal

What, according to you, is the potential of ocean energy in India?

Ocean energy, also known as marine energy or ocean power, refers to the power generated from oceans, waves and tides. India is a peninsular country, having a coastal length of more than 7,500 km and has the potential to generate 40 GW of power from ocean waves, and an additional 12 GW from tidal energy. The other form of energy is ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) and its potential is 180GW.

The team at Tuticorin port for testing

Is it cost-effective? According to the World Resources Institute, tidal energy projects that were planned for West Bengal and Gujarat have now been shelved due to the high capital costs of 30 to 60 crore/MW. Also, tidal energy technologies are still in their R&D stage in India, with high capital costs hindering large-scale commercial deployment. In such a scenario, do you see this sector evolving?

Wave energy and tidal energy are different---.Tides come due to the lunar and solar effects. Though the tidal turbine installation project began, it did not materialise. Also, yet another initiative by the government for constructing the bridge and installing the turbine plan is going on in the west coast of Gujarat. When it comes to the installation of tidal energy, the cost is huge, but the payback period is more. In several places the world over, tidal turbines are installed and the largest plant is in South Korea. As the question of reducing carbon footprint is there, people are exploring more renewable sources. Several technologies were expensive in the initial periods, but with the gradual improvement of technology and mass production, the cost has gone down. So, it is expected that in a few years, tidal energy systems will be common in many places in the world, including India. While ocean waves are created by the wind blowing over the sea surface, sunrays fall on the earth’s surface, creating temperature differences on the surface, air density changes, and naturally, the wind blows over the surface. The sea surface gets ripples when the wind blows--the ripples grow along with the wind crossing hundreds of miles, and significant waves get created. This wave contains a concentrated form of solar energy.

Wave energy (floating)

In India, the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) tried a fixed wave energy converter at the Vizhinjam port area, but in 2011, the system was decommissioned. Later, they developed a navigational buoy powered by wave energy. Globally too, many companies are trying to commercialize wave energy converters.

Recently, we (the IIT Madras lead team) tested a wave energy converter called Sindhuja-1. Following the first trial, plans are on to make it a full-fledged product by 2024. A few locations along Indian coasts contain a good amount of energy (more than 20kW/m), and that can be harvested forming arrays or a wave farm. A single unit may not be able to sufficiently give power, so we will need multiple systems to make 1MW power. The system has got good specific locations such as islands and so on. Initially, the cost can be a bit expensive, but based on requirement and technology advancement, the benefit can be more that the initial investment.

Is ocean/tidal energy capable of helping India meet its RE goals?

India has the potential to generate 40 GW of power from ocean waves, and 12 GW from tidal turbine. Presently, wave or tidal energy is not in the RE basket as significant work has not been done. We strongly believe that it will be in the basket as soon as the Ministry of Renewable Energy and Ministry of Earth Sciences takepositive measures in this regard.

In terms of policy, what will help the sector steer ahead?

To grow and develop in India, our funding bodies should be generous. I applied at least 10 times to Indian funding bodiesand they declined. The reason was funny. At times they say conduct the experiment and comeback, if I write the basic design aspects. The next time they stress on a basic design. Ocean activity needs larger funding. Since this is initial stage of work, government support or philanthropic is inevitable. We have submitted many proposals, and recently we have been getting positive response from funding agencies maybe because of our sea trial effect.

Ocean energy is not in the energy basket and most of the research cannot continue because testing in the lab or in the ocean is difficult. Therefore, many organizations cannot take the bold step I took. We have wave basin, and we have state of the art facilities at IITM, which is assisting in the progress. To bring in ocean energy, a joint effort is required. Indian and international institutes should come forward and work together. Also, the government machinery must support it. Even though organisations such as Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) and NIOT are working and assisting, I feel there needs to be more proactive action from them.

 

Could you tell us a bit about the study done by you at IIT Madras? How has it progressed?

This has been my research over a decade. I developed a lab for wave energy turbine testing and a turbine assembly was delivered to NIOT for their navigational buoy that was deployed 3-4 years ago at Kamarajar port area. When I joined IITM in 2010, I had no idea about wave energy. Gradually, I started reading documents and filed several patents. Along with working for NIOT’s wave energy system, I planned to design my own system and that’s when I got an idea of a point absorber system—it contains a buoy and spar, and harvests wave energy.

Then, one MS student named Vishnu began working on it. He completed his degree and left for Virginia tech for PhD. In the meantime, I got in touch with Suman Kumar, who started MS. Some other students started working on different aspects of component designing. In 2020, Sai Karthik connected with me and we decided to work together. He registered Viriya Paramita Energy (VPE) Pvt Ltd and soon, IIT Madras and VPE signed a Joint Development Agreement. Even though the pandemic slowed our work, we continued our endeavour. In September 2023, I told my research team that we are going to the ocean for testing.

Majority of the academic research and development work dies in the lab. We workwithin technology readiness level (TRL) 0-4. Then, there is a Darwinian Death Valley. Only a few crossthe valley, makeTRL&0-4 and see the world. So, I pushed for a sea trial, and we put out our system in the ocean at Tuticorin coast in November 2022. There were many hurdles such as permission, money, manpower, but we were able to overcome all of them. We crossed one level---our system worked in the ocean. Now, the aim is to modify further for the next level so that it is more sophisticated and more robust. We will go to the ocean every 6 months to design, optimize, test, and validate our work and plan to bring a product based on wave energy by the year 2024.

As it is a complete product, we have electrical, storage, fluid specialist and a mechanical designer all from different institutes. Many practical questions such as cost, location, installation, environment, maintenance will be answered with time and we are working on all the identified aspects.