OES Annual Report 2012 - Ocean Energy Systems
OES Annual Report 2012 - Ocean Energy Systems
OES Annual Report 2012 - Ocean Energy Systems
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WavEC has been further participating in the project “Structural Design of Wave <strong>Energy</strong> Devices” (http://<br />
www.sdwed.civil.aau.dk/), coordinated by Aalborg University and supported by the Danish Council for<br />
Strategic Research and became also involved in two new projects initiated in <strong>2012</strong>:<br />
1) SI <strong>Ocean</strong> “Strategic Initiative for <strong>Ocean</strong> <strong>Energy</strong> Development” aiming to identify and develop a wide<br />
consensus on the most effective way to tackle the key barriers to delivering a commercial wave and tidal<br />
energy sector in Europe, with support from the Executive Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation<br />
(EACI) and funded by Intelligent <strong>Energy</strong> - Europe (IEE).<br />
2) PolyWEC - Electro-active Polymers for Wave <strong>Energy</strong> Conversion, under the EU FP7 programme.<br />
WavEC and IST are involved in the Offshore Test Station (OTS), funded by KIC Inno<strong>Energy</strong>, in which base<br />
technology is being developed. This includes development of hardware and software for environmental<br />
monitoring, a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) tooling, components and methods for subsea cable<br />
connection, a PTO concept for combined wave-wind OWC wave energy converters and operations and<br />
maintenance (O&M) software modules for resource forecast & power and platform motions.<br />
Portugal, through WavEC, also participates in the European <strong>Energy</strong> Research Alliance (EERA).<br />
TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATION<br />
Operational <strong>Ocean</strong> <strong>Energy</strong> Projects<br />
Pico Plant<br />
On the Island of Pico, Azores, WavEC runs an OWC (Oscillating Water Column; www.pico-owc.net) type<br />
wave energy plant, presently among the very few functional wave power plants world-wide. At present,<br />
efforts are focused to attract funding for preparing the plant as open test centre, as one full-scale turbine<br />
duct in the structure is available. Pico OWC is a unique structure, allowing testing commercially-sized<br />
turbines and auxiliary equipments (up to ~700kW). Despite its inclusion in the EC large-scale infrastructure<br />
project MARiNET (http://www.fp7-marinet.eu/) and the proof of technology demonstrated over the last 2-3<br />
years, the plant requires substantial investment in order to enable another 5-10 years of service.<br />
New Developments<br />
WaveRoller<br />
The 300 kW WaveRoller unit (3 x 100 kW) has<br />
been deployed, near Peniche, deeper than its<br />
design depth, in order to collect validation<br />
data for previous tank tests and fine-tune<br />
the software that enables array optimization<br />
for future projects. The device have recently<br />
been brought to the surface and towed to the<br />
harbour as a part of an O&M exercise. After<br />
maintenance and minor repair the power plant<br />
will be re-configured and redeployed with<br />
only one operational panel. Subsequently, the<br />
plant will be deployed with two- and threepanel<br />
configurations to gather as much data<br />
as possible about the different deployment<br />
configurations. Installation of WaveRoller in Peniche, August <strong>2012</strong><br />
ANNUAL<br />
REPORT <strong>2012</strong>
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