Direct Drive Wave Energy Buoy

Technical Report · Mon Aug 22 00:00:00 EDT 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1307881· OSTI ID:1307881

Rhinefrank, Kenneth ^[1]; Lamb, Bradford ^[1]; Prudell, Joseph ^[1]; Hammagren, Erik ^[1]; Lenee-Bluhm, Pukha ^[1]

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1. Columbia Power Technologies, Inc., Charlottesville, VA (United States)

This Project aims to satisfy objectives of the DOE’s Water Power Program by completing a system detailed design (SDD) and other important activities in the first phase of a utility-scale grid-connected ocean wave energy demonstration. In early 2012, Columbia Power (CPwr) had determined that further cost and performance optimization was necessary in order to commercialize its StingRAY wave energy converter (WEC). CPwr’s progress toward commercialization, and the requisite technology development path, were focused on transitioning toward a commercial-scale demonstration. This path required significant investment to be successful, and the justification for this investment required improved annual energy production (AEP) and lower capital costs. Engineering solutions were developed to address these technical and cost challenges, incorporated into a proposal to the US Department of Energy (DOE), and then adapted to form the technical content and statement of project objectives of the resulting Project (DE-EE0005930). Through Project cost-sharing and technical collaboration between DOE and CPwr, and technical collaboration with Oregon State University (OSU), National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) and other Project partners, we have demonstrated experimentally that these conceptual improvements have merit and made significant progress towards a certified WEC system design at a selected and contracted deployment site at the Wave Energy Test Site (WETS) at the Marine Corps Base in Oahu, HI (MCBH).

• Research Organization: Columbia Power Technologies, Inc., Charlottesville, VA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Wind and Water Technologies Office (EE-4W)
• DOE Contract Number: EE0005930
• OSTI ID: 1307881
• Report Number(s): DOE/EE0005930-1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER
ABS
ANSYS AQWA
Ballast
Certification
Design Basis
Design Load Cases (DLC)
DNV
Electric Plant
Hull Structure
Mooring
Permitting
Power Take Off (PTO)
Prototype
Relative Capture Width (RCW)
SCADA
Statement of Feasibility
Wave Energy Converter (WEC)
Wave Energy Test Site (WETS)
Wave Tank
WaveDyn