Wave energy developer Mocean Energy has selected the University of Edinburgh’s C-GEN technology to provide the power take-off (PTO) for its first half-scale wave energy prototype.
In January this year Mocean Energy secured £3.3 million from Wave Energy Scotland (WES) to develop and build a scale prototype of its Blue Horizon wave machine which will be deployed in Orkney next year.
Now, the Edinburgh start-up has chosen C-GEN technology to provide the power take-off system for its utility-scale demonstrator.
C-GEN is a novel direct-drive generator developed by The University of Edinburgh which is said to be highly efficient over a wide range of wave conditions. The university is also currently engaged with WES in a separate project to develop and demonstrate C-GEN technology.
The two teams will now build a test rig, which will be tested at a specialist facility in Rosyth, where they can put the C-GEN PTO through performance and acceptance testing using representative wave data. The same PTO will then be installed in Mocean Energy’s half-scale prototype which will be manufactured in Scotland later this year.
“To date our focus has been on the hydrodynamic and mechanical performance of Blue Horizon,” explains Cameron McNatt , Mocean Energy managing director.
“Blue Horizon is a hinged raft with a unique geometry which flexes in two dimensions via a relatively slow-moving single hinge. C-GEN is a good match for us because it delivers high efficiencies in the right range of speeds.
“Our test programme will ensure we optimise the performance of both technologies to extract the maximum mechanical energy from our operational machine,” McNatt concludes.