A screening method to quantify the economic viability of off-grid in-stream tidal energy deployment

This study provides a framework to assess the economic viability of introducing tidal energy in a remote community to be used as a rapid screening tool by communities or project developers. Tidal projects life-cycle costs are modelled using the capabilities of HOMER Pro. Communities are described by the local price of diesel fuel (as a metric of the cost of electricity), their electrical load scale, and the local tidal current resource. A sequence of HOMER Pro models, exploring a range of these parameters and tidal turbine rated power combinations, were performed in pursuit of a simple relationship with economic viability.