Bombora wraps up mid-scale wave device testing

Bombora Wave Power has concluded the sea trials of its mid-scale wave energy prototype in Western Australia.

The Australian wave energy developer informed it completed the decommissioning process for the device that was deployed at the Como Jetty, off Melville.

Bombora deployed the scaled device in 2015 in order to test a number of system configurations to optimize the key design and control system features before launching commercial scale trials.

The trial resulted in thousands of hours of data collection and environmental performance testing, according to Bombora.

The company said it is currently in preparations for the design, fabrication, testing and deployment of its Au$24 million ($18.2 million) full-scale wave energy converter prototype in Europe. The device, dubbed mWave, will be deployed at Peniche, off Portugal.

In April last year, the company completed the feasibility study based on the proposed 60MW wave farm in Portugal, and found that the cost of electricity from Bombora wave farms will be competitive with other renewables like offshore wind and solar by 2023.

Bombora’s wave energy system uses a large membrane energy harvester to collect, concentrate and modulate the wave energy using an air circuit.

The system has an onboard 1.5 MW air turbine that spins as wave passes over the system moving the air around the circuit and driving it through the turbine, which results in the generation of electricity.