Project Overview
The principal objective of this project is to develop an understanding of the current technological barriers to full commercialisation in the Marine Energy sector. This has been done through close collaboration with key industry players including device developers, supply chain companies and up to date European and national research organisations.
The project can be considered in four distinct but closely interlinked phases:
The project can be considered in four distinct but closely interlinked phases:
- Research and familiarisation with key issues
- Interviews with key industry players
- Inductive coding of interview transcripts
- Analysis of inductive coding output
1. Research and familiarisation with key issues
Prior to the interview phase, it was critical to gain an understanding of the key technological issues surrounding the Marine Energy issues. Some of the most up to date Academic and Government funded papers were used. A list of these can be found in the Literature Review section.
2. Interviews with key industry players
Twelve different device developers were interviewed throughout the first phase of this project, over a period of approximately 2 months. The developers covered a broad range of Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) with the least mature technology at TRL 4 and the most advanced at TRL 8. It was important to interview a large cross section of the industry to ensure that the opinions transcribed were those of the entire industry and not a minority. It was also crucial to interview both Tidal Current and Wave developers for diversity.
3. Inductive coding of interview transcripts
In order to provide a useful output from the research for reporting, the qualitative data (interview transcripts) was converted into quantitative data (graphs and tables). There are a number of strategies for doing this which are discussed in greater detail in the Inductive Coding section.
The chosen method for this project was "Grounded Theory", whereby a theory is generated based on the opinions of the interviewees. The process is iterative and requires the analyst to continuously compare emerging categories to the data.
The chosen method for this project was "Grounded Theory", whereby a theory is generated based on the opinions of the interviewees. The process is iterative and requires the analyst to continuously compare emerging categories to the data.
4. Analysis of inductive coding output
Once the qualitative data had been converted into a quantitative form, a mixed methods research software, called Dedoose, was used to generate graphs, figures and tables. It was important to provide figures which display valuable information whilst also exploring avenues which may not have been explored before.