Currently, there are many different wave energy converters. Their levelized cost of energy of extracting wave energy are still much higher than other matured renewables. The findings of the review show that disagreements of levelized cost of energy are due to the different cost constitutions and their measuring method of capital expenditure and operational expenditure. In the assumed scenario of case study with structure of cost, one-step investment program of half-discounted model is superior to the multi-step investment of discount model. Thus, investment form should be considered into the variables of levelized cost of energy.
Among the different ocean renewable energies, wave energy has several potential advantages over other ocean energies—being high power density, and fossil energies —being low visual environmental impact and zero carbon emissions. The total wave energy is theoretically estimated to 32,000 TWh yearly in areas between the 30° and 60° latitude lines (both northern and southern hemispheres), while the estimate of wave energy production is 500 gigawatts (GW) electric power if 40% conversion efficiency can be reached (International Renewable Energy Agency, 2014). The great potentials encourage many institutions and companies to concentrate on the development and design of wave energy converter (WEC). Until now, over 100 different types of WECs have been proposed and developed, some of them have undergone test and development for decades, and some have generated power to grid. But due to the limited amount of commercial electricity generated by WEC so far, technologies of utilizing wave energy are still at a pre-commercial stage (Wang, Isberg and Tedeschi, 2018).
Understanding levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of wave energy technology is crucial, to make sure that it is competitive in the electric power market and help to make appropriate business decisions. The LCOE feedback can help to continually innovate wave energy output and optimize the wave energy generator entity. Certainly, the LCOE, which involves both technical and non-technical characteristics of the wave energy project, must be studied so to support researchers to develop highly efficient wave energy converter (WEC), and stakeholders to make decisions for wave energy project.
