Tweet
If the article is too long for you, basically it is saying that there are many new prototypes and designs coming forward which are being tested in the open water with the purpose of harnessing the waves as a source of energy. The more designs there are, the more competitive the market becomes and the more innovation we will see. Wave power may be the new source of power in the near-future.
New power wave heads out
to sea
Any wave will do for P2
An explosion of designs for harvesting wave energy could make the
process competitive at last – and they're heading out to the ocean for
testing
WRINGING electricity from the sea is no small task. But as firms start to
test their wave-energy harvesters in the open ocean that could be about
to change.
Heaving water holds 40 times more energy than air moving at the same
speed, and sea states change more slowly than breezes, making it easier
for utilities to predict the availability of energy. Yet the tools needed to
make use of the sea's energy are gargantuan.
Pelamis Wave Power's wave energy device, P2, is a case in point. Currently
stored at the Leith Docks in Edinburgh, UK, it uses spools of steel cable
several times human height, and floats that are as big as a car. But this is
just window dressing for the machine itself: a red rig that looks like a
180-metre-long subway train.
Pelamis and Aquamarine Power, also based in Edinburgh, are the big players
in what remains a small industry of generating energy from waves. Each is
now fielding full-scale prototypes that could make wave energy
competitive in terms of cost with other renewable energy sources, such as
offshore wind.
Alongside them are dozens of smaller competitors, building a menagerie of
strange devices that they hope will leapfrog ahead of existing machines in
the race to provide inexpensive power from the sea. "Wave energy has
been talked about for hundreds of years," says Neil Kermode, managing
director of the European Union-funded European Marine Energy Centre
(EMEC). "Now it's actually starting to happen."
In the UK, the waters around the Orkney Islands off northern Scotland,
home to some of the world's cruellest weather, are used as EMEC's proving
grounds, as they offer a stiff test for wave-energy devices. As Kermode
puts it: "This is the playground for the big boys."
For all its impressive size, on the inside the P2 looks more like a data
centre than a ship's hull. Duplicate server racks, fibre-optic communication
systems and emergency power supplies allow programmers to upload
software on the fly without interrupting power production.
The P2 generates energy when its large floating tubes, connected by
hinged joints, bob in the waves, moving hydraulic rams that pump
high-pressure fluid to drive turbine. And while the hardware has been
upgraded from previous prototypes, it is the algorithm controlling them that
makes the difference. By decreasing resistance in the rams when waves
are small and increasing it when they are larger, the algorithm maximises
energy production in any sea state. As a result, the P2 produces 750
kilowatts of electricity - twice as much as prior prototypes.
"It's the active control of these algorithms that allows us to tune the
machine to be in resonance regardless of wave conditions," says Pelamis
engineer Ross Henderson.
Last month, Aquamarine Power finished the construction of its second
full-scale wave power device, the Oyster 800. This consists of a hinged
flap that sticks out of the water and is pushed shut with each passing
wave. When the flap moves, it drives hydraulic pistons that deliver
high-pressure water via a pipeline to an onshore turbine. With an output of
800 kilowatts, the device is built to be 2.5 times as powerful as its
predecessor (see "The ocean is your oyster").
"If you can get that sort of level of performance improvement then the
economics suddenly start to look a lot more favourable," says Stephen
Wyatt, head of technology acceleration at The Carbon Trust, a
UK-government-funded organisation charged with catalysing a low-carbon
economy.
A study published by The Carbon Trust in July estimated the cost of
energy harvested from waves at 43 pence per kilowatt-hour, or almost
three times the cost of offshore wind. To become cost competitive with
other sources of renewable energy, companies will have to find ways to
squeeze more power out of their devices, says Wyatt.
Meanwhile, a host of start-up companies are heading for EMEC's "nursery"
- a test facility built in sheltered waters for designs that are not yet ready
for the open ocean - each hoping their device will be the next game
changer.
One of the most promising, according to a three-year study by The Carbon
Trust, is Anaconda
by Checkmate Seaenergy, based in Sheerness, UK.
This is a snake-like rubber tube filled with water that floats just below the
surface. As waves hit the front of the device they squeeze the tube,
creating a bulge of water that travels along it. When the bulge reaches the
end, the pressurised water drives a turbine.
An 8-metre long prototype has been tested, but the firm says it will be
several years before its full-scale 1-megawatt device, which would be 150
metres long, is ready.
An equally unusual machine, the 1600-tonne Penguin, will soon begin
testing at EMEC. Built by Finnish company Wello, the 500-kilowatt rig has
an asymmetrically shaped hull that causes it to roll, heave and pitch -
much like the stilted stride of a penguin - with each passing wave. The
movement spins a flywheel inside the hull, driving a generator.
With such devices arriving with increasing frequency, it's too early to tell
which technology will win out in the end. "That is part of the
excitement," Kermode says. "It may be something completely new or
variations on something we have already seen."
New power wave heads out to sea - environment - 26 August 2011 - New Scientist
New power wave heads out
to sea
Any wave will do for P2
An explosion of designs for harvesting wave energy could make the
process competitive at last – and they're heading out to the ocean for
testing
WRINGING electricity from the sea is no small task. But as firms start to
test their wave-energy harvesters in the open ocean that could be about
to change.
Heaving water holds 40 times more energy than air moving at the same
speed, and sea states change more slowly than breezes, making it easier
for utilities to predict the availability of energy. Yet the tools needed to
make use of the sea's energy are gargantuan.
Pelamis Wave Power's wave energy device, P2, is a case in point. Currently
stored at the Leith Docks in Edinburgh, UK, it uses spools of steel cable
several times human height, and floats that are as big as a car. But this is
just window dressing for the machine itself: a red rig that looks like a
180-metre-long subway train.
Pelamis and Aquamarine Power, also based in Edinburgh, are the big players
in what remains a small industry of generating energy from waves. Each is
now fielding full-scale prototypes that could make wave energy
competitive in terms of cost with other renewable energy sources, such as
offshore wind.
Alongside them are dozens of smaller competitors, building a menagerie of
strange devices that they hope will leapfrog ahead of existing machines in
the race to provide inexpensive power from the sea. "Wave energy has
been talked about for hundreds of years," says Neil Kermode, managing
director of the European Union-funded European Marine Energy Centre
(EMEC). "Now it's actually starting to happen."
In the UK, the waters around the Orkney Islands off northern Scotland,
home to some of the world's cruellest weather, are used as EMEC's proving
grounds, as they offer a stiff test for wave-energy devices. As Kermode
puts it: "This is the playground for the big boys."
For all its impressive size, on the inside the P2 looks more like a data
centre than a ship's hull. Duplicate server racks, fibre-optic communication
systems and emergency power supplies allow programmers to upload
software on the fly without interrupting power production.
The P2 generates energy when its large floating tubes, connected by
hinged joints, bob in the waves, moving hydraulic rams that pump
high-pressure fluid to drive turbine. And while the hardware has been
upgraded from previous prototypes, it is the algorithm controlling them that
makes the difference. By decreasing resistance in the rams when waves
are small and increasing it when they are larger, the algorithm maximises
energy production in any sea state. As a result, the P2 produces 750
kilowatts of electricity - twice as much as prior prototypes.
"It's the active control of these algorithms that allows us to tune the
machine to be in resonance regardless of wave conditions," says Pelamis
engineer Ross Henderson.
Last month, Aquamarine Power finished the construction of its second
full-scale wave power device, the Oyster 800. This consists of a hinged
flap that sticks out of the water and is pushed shut with each passing
wave. When the flap moves, it drives hydraulic pistons that deliver
high-pressure water via a pipeline to an onshore turbine. With an output of
800 kilowatts, the device is built to be 2.5 times as powerful as its
predecessor (see "The ocean is your oyster").
"If you can get that sort of level of performance improvement then the
economics suddenly start to look a lot more favourable," says Stephen
Wyatt, head of technology acceleration at The Carbon Trust, a
UK-government-funded organisation charged with catalysing a low-carbon
economy.
A study published by The Carbon Trust in July estimated the cost of
energy harvested from waves at 43 pence per kilowatt-hour, or almost
three times the cost of offshore wind. To become cost competitive with
other sources of renewable energy, companies will have to find ways to
squeeze more power out of their devices, says Wyatt.
Meanwhile, a host of start-up companies are heading for EMEC's "nursery"
- a test facility built in sheltered waters for designs that are not yet ready
for the open ocean - each hoping their device will be the next game
changer.
One of the most promising, according to a three-year study by The Carbon
Trust, is Anaconda
by Checkmate Seaenergy, based in Sheerness, UK.This is a snake-like rubber tube filled with water that floats just below the
surface. As waves hit the front of the device they squeeze the tube,
creating a bulge of water that travels along it. When the bulge reaches the
end, the pressurised water drives a turbine.
An 8-metre long prototype has been tested, but the firm says it will be
several years before its full-scale 1-megawatt device, which would be 150
metres long, is ready.
An equally unusual machine, the 1600-tonne Penguin, will soon begin
testing at EMEC. Built by Finnish company Wello, the 500-kilowatt rig has
an asymmetrically shaped hull that causes it to roll, heave and pitch -
much like the stilted stride of a penguin - with each passing wave. The
movement spins a flywheel inside the hull, driving a generator.
With such devices arriving with increasing frequency, it's too early to tell
which technology will win out
in the end. "That is part of theexcitement," Kermode says. "It may be something completely new or
variations on something we have already seen."
New power wave heads out to sea - environment - 26 August 2011 - New Scientist
Comment