CorPower makes waves at EMEC

Swedish wave energy developer, CorPower Ocean, has signed up to test its resonant wave energy converter at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC).

The announcement follows CorPower’s success in Wave Energy Scotland’s (WES) power-take-off (PTO) call that, combined with funding from KIC InnoEnergy and the Swedish Energy Agency, completes a €6.5 million Stage 3 funding round for dry rig testing of a half scale prototype system followed by an ocean deployment at EMEC’s scale test site in Scapa Flow, Orkney.

The project aims to deliver a highly reliable PTO solution using the innovative WaveSpring control technology offering a step-change improvement in performance and cost to the wave energy sector.

CorPower’s technology will be taken through a programme of structured verification, and will involve a five-month programme of cyclical dry and wet testing of the system in Orkney, culminating in a performance assessment by EMEC.

Prior to arriving in Orkney, the PTO will undergo a five-month dry test period in Stockholm using the same test rig, thereby significantly de-risking the ocean deployment.

This novel approach to PTO development will incorporate the installation of a bespoke dry test rig at EMEC for hardware-in-the-loop testing, which will have the ability to subject wave devices to the full range of wave loads corresponding to the most challenging sea states.

Neil Kermode, EMEC’s Managing Director, said: “This is a particularly exciting project for EMEC as it includes the installation of additional infrastructure – a PTO dry test rig – near the Scapa Flow wave test site. This test rig will act as a lasting legacy of Corpower’s test programme and WES’ foresight, as it will be available to support the development of other wave and tidal energy converters in the future.”

Tim Hurst, Managing Director at Wave Energy Scotland, added: “CorPower’s contribution to the WES PTO programme will be invaluable. The design is the most advanced of the PTO projects, and testing with EMEC will afford us the opportunity to follow the test progress closely. The HiDrive PTO technology represents an exciting step forward in developing a successful wave energy technology and I’m looking forward to seeing the results.”