About Projects Database
The Marine Energy Projects Database is an online knowledge hub within the Portal and Repository for Information on Marine Renewable Energy (PRIMRE) that tracks content associated with marine energy projects and provides valuable insights into the development of technologies on the road towards commercialization. The database provides information on open water projects, test sites, devices, and organizations in the U.S. and around the world, with a focus on energy harnessed from waves, currents, ocean thermal gradients, and salinity gradients (for a complete description of these resources visit Marine Energy Basics). An active content curation team oversees the timely compilation of the most recent announcements, as well as all past endeavors, to provide a complete historical record of marine energy activities. An overview of the database, including a demonstration on how to contribute missing information, is available through a past webinar recording.
The Marine Energy Projects Database will prove beneficial to all members of the marine energy community, including investors, developers, test center managers, regulators, and researchers. Browse the knowledge hub to find data analytics charts that provide valuable insights into current industry trends such as the relative technology readiness levels of all known devices. Seek collaboration opportunities by identifying other organizations with expertise in project management or device development that align with your goals. Use the filtering tools to identify knowledge gaps in the industry and guide future research efforts. Or use the carefully curated data entry templates to communicate your own work as it relates to open water deployments of marine energy technologies.
Data Connections
All pages in the Marine Energy Projects Database are semantically linked to one another, creating a rich data structure to explore the relationships between Organizations operating in the marine energy sector with at-sea deployments of Devices conducted at Test Sites or independently permitted sites Projects, and the Technologies upon which those devices are based.
Page Layout
A commonality between the pages for Projects, Test Sites, Devices, and Organizations is a layout consisting of charts near the top of each page that provide insights into industry trends, followed by a summary table listing every entry in a given category and its key characteristics.
Projects Database general site navigation
Data Categories
All pages in the Marine Energy Projects Database are semantically linked to one another, creating a rich data structure to explore the relationships between Organizations operating in the marine energy sector with at-sea deployments of Devices conducted at Test Sites or independently permitted sites Projects, and the Technologies upon which those devices are based.
Projects
This database defines projects as open water marine energy device deployments meant to generate electricity or provide some alternative benefit. Launching a marine energy project is a complex process where a typical deployment must identify a location that has good resource potential and adequate grid infrastructure, while avoiding sensitive habitat and conflicting ocean uses. Developers must seek permits from local agencies, negotiate a power purchase agreement, communicate with local stakeholders, and coordinate with the supply chain on manufacturing and installation.
Test Sites
This database defines test sites as open water locations where device prototypes can be tested in real conditions. Since permitting marine energy for tests in open water can be a lengthy process, test sites have been created around the world to enable fast-tracked testing of device prototypes. These test sites often have research support staff, servicing infrastructure, detailed resource assessments, cable connections, and existing blanket environmental permits to support the tests. Technology developers are able to learn substantial information about device maintenance, survivability, power performance, environmental effects, and optimize their designs accordingly.
Devices
This database defines devices as units that harness energy from waves, currents, temperature gradients, or salinity gradients. Developers are designing and iterating on a wide variety of device designs as the industry seeks to identify designs that are cheaper, more resilient, and more environmentally friendly. Some devices have only been tested at small scales, but many have undergone rigorous sea trials and generated power to the grid.
Organizations
This database lists organizations that are associated with marine energy projects, test sites, or devices around the world. The list focuses on project managers, test site managers, and technology developers derived from tracked projects, test sites, and devices, but does not include research organizations, funding agencies, stakeholders, suppliers, and the many other organizations involved in marine energy.
Technologies
This database defines technologies as the basic archetypes of marine energy devices used to harness energy from waves, currents, ocean thermal gradients, and salinity gradients. Each technology type includes a description of the fundamental principles that it relies on, as well as graphics and animations that show how they operate in the ocean. Unlike other content in the database, new technology archetypes are seldom added to the site because most innovation in the industry tends to build upon these existing designs rather than deviate from them completely.
Data entry sequencing
As mentioned before, all content in the Marine Energy Projects Database is interconnected and this section is intended to briefly cover how these linkages are formed. The diagram below is an example of how entries of different content types relate to each other, with arrows indicating the directional sequence that is observed when linking these entries together. When adding new content, organizations are always the first to be added to the database and they are initially not tied to any other content. Next in the sequence is the addition of device pages, which through their creation become associated with existing organizations and technologies. Lastly is the creation of project and test site pages, both of which form links to existing organizations and devices. All data linkages are made through the use of carefully curated templates available directly through the database that facilitate the dynamic selection of related content already in the database. Once a link is formed between two entries, a hyperlink is shown on each page that allow for easy navigation between related content.
How to get involved
The curators behind the Marine Energy Projects Database encourage contributions from all members of the industry. To add content to the database, create an account on OpenEI and use the “Add new” buttons to fill out entry templates. Alternatively, updates and new content can be contributed by emailing .