Wave Swell Energy commissioned CSIRO to to independently analyse the potential for capital cost and levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) reductions of its wave energy technology.
Report extract
CSIRO was commissioned by Wave Swell Energy Ltd (WSE) to independently analyse the potential for capital cost and levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) reductions of its proprietary unidirectional oscillating water column (OWC) wave energy converter (WEC) technology. The analysis is based on the widely accepted concept of “learning-by-doing”.
As to be expected, individual firm learning rate data was not available for WSE’s WEC as it is a novel technology that has had limited deployment thus far. An estimated learning rate based on industry wide learning rates was used as the next best approach. It is not known how different an individual firm’s learning rate might be compared to the industry wide learning rate, which is a source of some uncertainty in the methodology. In any case, a single firm cannot deliver all learning in a technology class such as wave energy and all technologies will benefit from collective learning. The wave energy sector’s overall learning rate will, therefore, be the result of a concerted industry wide effort with support, for example, from government and the research sector.