Technology assessment process (TAP)
EMEC’s Technology Assessment Process (TAP for short) is an integrated evaluation and development pathway supporting ocean energy developers to demonstrate technical and economic viability of an ocean energy technology.
Following a structured development path, with clear targets, test requirements and assessment processes, is therefore strongly encouraged by both IEC and EMEC.
TAP provides a standardised framework for the assessment of new and emerging wave and tidal energy technologies allowing technology to be benchmarked in a number of key areas. This approach helps to de-risk early-stage technologies prior to prototype testing stage, enabling you to focus on the areas that are most important, giving direction on where to focus your time and money, ultimately resulting in a less expensive, faster and more focused development pathway.
The TAP methodology is designed to track progress and build evidence of performance as technologies progress from one stage of development to another, identifying milestones towards technology commercialisation and development support opportunities.
Benefits for technology developers:
- Structured development pathway with clear milestones for technology and commercial development.
- Reduced time, cost and risk in development pathway.
- Improved focus and risk management.
Benefits for investors and funders:
- Improved visibility of technical strengths when evaluating competing ideas.
- Informed investment decisions with improved confidence and reduced risk.
- Matching investment to strong, feasible technical ideas.
- On-going confidence through periodic independent review.
Gap analysis
De-risk and streamline your pathway to deployment with a Gap Analysis.
EMEC’s Gap Analysis service starts with a benchmarking process, based on a request for information. This feeds into the assessment of a high-level technology readiness level (TRL), technology performance level (TPL) and commercial readiness level (CRL) review. The output is an overview of focus areas for you to prioritise efforts, aiming to address issues early in the design and development process. This includes lessons learned, challenges to date, future issues to mitigate and any observations that arose in respect to international guidelines for marine renewable energy technology development.
The final deliverable will be a Gap Analysis Report, outlining findings and recommendations from the analysis.
Scope, time and level of effort for this service is discussed on a case-by-case basis.
Technology Benchmarking Assessment
EMEC’s ocean energy Technology Benchmarking Assessment System has been built over many years, led by an acknowledged industry expert. The system is subject to continual refinement and integrates the best of various ocean energy technology benchmarking and assessment processes, protocols and tools while avoiding some of their inherent issues.
We can assess your technology against a consistent framework based on an integration of various technology readiness level (TRL), commercial readiness level (CRL) and technology performance level (TPL) aspects – all based on the development stage of your technology.
EMEC will issue a Request for Information (RfI) tailored to your technology and its development stage.
TRL 1-2 EMEC expects that it may take you 1-4 weeks to complete the RfI and submit it to EMEC (depending on your available time/workload). For low TRL technology a specific assessment of the TRL1 and TRL2 aspects will be undertaken, followed by a general CRL assessment and some further CRL2 aspects. A TPL assessment may be undertaken if it is deemed that there is sufficient information to allow a reasonable assessment, but this TPL assessment may need to be undertaken at a later stage (e.g., TRL3+). Each assessed aspect will be scored as 0-3, with a commentary explaining the score provided. If required, a gap analysis can also be undertaken, highlighting the key priorities for further development work. If required, suggested high-level services to address these gaps can also be provided. The output of the work will be a simple report outlining the results of the above assessment aspects (including gap analysis and high-level services to address these gaps if required and agreed). A follow-up MS Teams call can be arranged to discuss the report and any next steps.TRL 1-2
TRL 3-5 EMEC expects that it may take you 1-8 weeks to complete the RfI and submit it to EMEC (depending on your available time/workload). For mid TRL technology a specific assessment of the TRL aspects up to the TRL (e.g. TRL1-4) you believe your technology has achieved will be undertaken, together with an assessment of the CRL aspects up to the CRL (e.g. CRL1-3) you believe your technology has achieved. A TPL assessment will also be undertaken. Each assessed aspect will be scored as 0-3, with a commentary explaining the score provided. If required, a gap analysis can also be undertaken, highlighting the key priorities for further development work. If required, suggested high-level services to address these gaps can also be provided. The output of the work will be a simple report outlining the results of the above assessment aspects (including gap analysis and high-level services to address these gaps if required and agreed). A follow-up MS Teams call can be arranged to discuss the report and any next steps.TRL 3-5
TRL 6-8 EMEC expects that it may take you 1-8 weeks to complete the RfI and submit it to EMEC (depending on your available time/workload). For high TRL technology a specific assessment of the TRL aspects at the TRL (e.g. TRL7) you believe your technology has achieved will be undertaken, together with an assessment of the CRL aspects up to the CRL (e.g. CRL1-6) you believe your technology has achieved. A TPL assessment will also be undertaken. Each assessed aspect will be scored as 0-3, with a commentary explaining the score provided. If required, a gap analysis can also be undertaken, highlighting the key priorities for further development work. If required, suggested high-level services to address these gaps can also be provided. The output of the work will be a simple report outlining the results of the above assessment aspects (including gap analysis and high-level services to address these gaps if required and agreed). A follow-up MS Teams call can be arranged to discuss the report and any next steps.TRL 6-8
Inspection and performance assessment
Certification is a key component of developing a mature industry and helps attract investment. Standards and the use of technical specifications allow technologies to be tested under the same globally recognised criteria, giving investors and insurers confidence that the technology has been rigorously tested by a competent independent party.
EMEC has been active in supporting the development of marine energy standards since we were established in 2003. We are accredited as a test laboratory (ISO/IEC 17025:2017) and inspection body (ISO/IEC 17020:2012) and are a designated Renewable Energy Testing Laboratory (RETL) by the International Electrotechnical Commission – Renewable Energy System (IECRE). This enables EMEC to provide independent testing and inspection support following the IEC 62600 suite of standards applied to “marine energy – wave, tidal and other water current converters”. We are the only open sea marine energy facility in the world to hold these accreditations.
EMEC provides third-party inspection of a developer’s power performance, tank testing and/or mooring systems, regardless of where you are testing in the world. For more details on these services, visit: Accredited services
Contact us to start the technology assessment process: 01856 852060 / info@emec.org.uk.
