EXPLORING THE UNSEEN IMPACT OF WAVE ENERGY TECHNOLOGY

June 08, 2023

It’s a special-purpose buoy, heaving in the ocean in response to the waves. The clean energy in the waves is used to rotate generator parts inside the buoy to produce electricity.

Related: Ocean waves can power millions of homes

The buoys, moored systems, and other components inside are very challenging to design and deploy. CorPower Ocean^TM wave energy converter, which is anchored to the sea bed using a tension mooring system, turns wave energy into 300 kilowatts (kW) of electricity.

The wave energy converters are arranged in a specific pattern to make a CorPack produce 10-20 megawatts of power. The CorPack includes all that is needed to generate electricity from ocean waves—wave energy converters, mooring system, anchors, electrical collection system, remote control, and communication.

The CorPacks are the building blocks of wave farms—capable of generating energy in the range of hundreds of megawatts to gigawatts of power.

However, they are also exposed to harsh conditions at sea. How do CorPacks cope with harsh conditions? The wave energy converters have challenges to contend with—harsh ocean conditions. Advances in technology are increasingly allowing researchers to learn more about how to prepare for and respond to harsh sea conditions.

CorPower Ocean says, in harsh sea conditions, the buoy is detuned to protect itself from harsh sea conditions. In a regular sea state, the buoy is tuned to amplify the motion and electricity.

CorPower Ocean says “Phase one involving underwater noise baseline campaigns has been concluded at the HiWave-5 Wave Energy Park, off the coast of Aguçadoura, in northern Portugal. The work involved analysis of ambient noise in the project area before installation”.