Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center
NNMREC is a US DOE-sponsored partnership between Oregon State University (OSU) and the University of Washington (UW). OSU investigates wave energy. UW investigates tidal energy. Both universities collaborate with each other and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) on research, education, outreach, and engagement.
NNMREC has a full range of capabilities to support wave and tidal energy development for the United States. NNMREC is structured to:
- Close key gaps in understanding through the support of baseline studies, on-going monitoring, and setting the technical, ecological, and human dimensions standards for wave and tidal energy projects;
- Facilitate device commercialization through development of standards for validation and evaluation of devices;
- Inform regulatory and policy decisions, and
- Inform and engage industry, science, and the public.
NNMREC plans to serve as an integrated, standardized test center for marine energy conversion device developers of wave and tidal energy. Here device and array optimization will be tested for effective deployment of wave and tidal energy technologies, improved forecasting of the wave energy resource can be made, and studies leading to the increased reliability and survivability of marine energy systems can be realized.
NNMREC evaluates the potential ecosystem and human dimensions impacts. It focuses on the compatibility of marine energy technologies with ocean and coastal environments and coastal users.
