dtocean 2026.3.3

Design and techno-economic assessment of marine renewable energy arrays.

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:loudspeaker: This project is currently in beta while I finish converting the Python2 modules to Python3. Please consider sponsoring my work. Many thanks.

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DTOcean

DTOcean is an open-source tool for design and techno-economic assessment of marine renewable energy arrays.

DTOcean can calculate:

• Optimal ocean energy converter (OEC) positioning
• Energy export infrastructure
• Station keeping requirements based on OEC performance and site conditions
• Installation planning with weather effects
• Maintenance planning, simulating OEC downtime
• Environmental impact assessment (experimental)

And features include:

• A unique statistical approach to calculating levelized cost of energy (LCOE)
• OEC reliability influenced at component level
• Graphical user interface
• Persistent database

(Features currently unavailable but planned for reimplementation are struck out.)

Installation

Install the DTOcean suite of packages using pip:

pip install dtocean

After installation, download necessary data files and setup desktop shortcuts using the following command:

dtocean init

Database

See the dtocean-database repository for download and installation instructions.

Usage

Open the DTOcean GUI using the DTOcean shortcut or from a command prompt:

dtocean app

Command Line Tools

The dtocean command provides universal access to the command line tools for all of the install modules. Documentation for each subcommand can be found in the table below.

subcommand	help
init	Run module initialization (requires internet connection)
app	See dtocean-app
core	See dtocean-core
database	See dtocean-core
docs	See dtocean-docs
hydrodynamics	See dtocean-hydrodynamics

Example Files

The examples archive (in zip or tar.gz format) can be downloaded from the latest release of the dtocean-examples repository. See the "Getting Started 1: Example Project" chapter of the docs for usage instructions.

Documentation

See https://dtocean.github.io/dtocean for the latest documentation. The documentation can also be accessed from the Help menu of the GUI using the Index... command or using the dtocean docs command line tool.

Various video tutorials can also be found on the Data Only Greater YouTube Channel.

Contributing

Please see the contributing guidelines for information regarding the structure of the DTOcean GitHub repository, the tools required for setting up development and how to offer contributions to the project.

Credits

This version of DTOcean was developed and published by Mathew Topper at Data Only Greater as a continuation of the EU FP7 DTOcean project.

Also, please check out the EU H2020 DTOceanPlus project, which expanded the scope of the DTOcean tools. The source code for DTOceanPlus is available from gitlab.com.

Licence and Attributions

GPL-3.0

Other licenses may apply to individual components. Please see the source code for full licensing information.

While not required by the terms of the license, if you would like to acknowledge the use of DTOcean in a publication, you may choose to cite:

Topper, M. B., Olson, S. S., & Roberts, J. D. (2021). On the benefits of negative hydrodynamic interactions in small tidal energy arrays. Applied Energy, 297, 117091. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.117091

Topper, M. B., Olson, S. S., & Roberts, J. D. (2020). Techno-economic modelling of tidal energy converter arrays in the tacoma narrows. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, 8(9), 646. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse8090646

Topper, M. B. R., Nava, V., Collin, A. J., Bould, D., Ferri, F., Olson, S. S., ... & Jeffrey, H. F. (2019). Reducing variability in the cost of energy of ocean energy arrays. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 112, 263-279. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2019.05.032