ABSTRACT
The assessment tools for the economy of wave energy systems have been identified and the methodology of determination defined. This included cost/kWh of power generation, annual net cash generation from power production, simple payback period of capital investment, and internal rate of return percentage estimations. A new index—relative product cost (RPC) ratio—was introduced to compare the relative markup cost ratios of competing ocean energy (OE) systems. The Acceptability Index (AI) was introduced to compare OE systems with conventional power price for different countries, including external cost for the fossil fuel sector. A case study was made with a particular type of OE setup, wave dragon (WD)-type wave scheme, as well as its suggested improved version of a hybrid setup by tagging it with wind energy. WD and hybrid WD were compared with the conventional power sector using the AI tool. It was observed that when external costs were included, the OE system, particularly the hybrid WD, would be a cheaper option for most of the countries than the conventional power sector.
