Introducing SWWCB wave energy device

Marine Energy Corporation (MEC), a Texas-based marine energy developer, has designed a point absorber barge whose mooring system turns onboard generators to produce electricity.

Super Watt Wave Catcher Barge (SWWCB) is a buoyant barge that rides the water’s surface and uses its mooring lines to turn generators located inside the buoyant body to generate power.

The tops of the mooring lines are likely to be steel wire reinforced belts that go over large diameter pulleys on their way to power large generators, according to MEC.

The generators used for SWWCB can be of various types, including rotating generators, linear generators, hydraulic pump driven generators, compressors, amongst others.

SWWCB uses high vertical drag coefficient large flat bottom barge hulls to ride the water’s surface.

The pressure on flat surface areas lifts the barges almost the height of the swell waves, and the barge’s mooring lines power generators located inside water tight barge enclosure.

When the generators are a rotating type, the steel wire reinforced rubber belts first go over large diameter articulated pulleys, then go over large diameter uni-directional pulleys, then turn a large diameter flywheel that finally turns the rotating generators.

The forces in the mooring belts are large enough to eventually turn large wind turbine generators. All equipment is likely to be enclosed inside water tight enclosures on top of the barge proving a safe dry area for equipment preservation and personnel access for equipment maintenance.

In its patent, MEC illustrated various mooring systems that can be used with the wave catcher barges, including mooring systems that can be designed to help minimize vessel offset and minimize belt contact with the hull, help maximize power output by imposing minimum vertical restraint loads on the barge, and so on.

MEC has recently been selected as a finalist amongst 20 teams total, for the Wave Energy Prize, set up by the US Department of Energy.

The design-build-test competition is encouraging the development of game-changing wave energy conversion (WEC) devices, and the teams are competing to win a prize purse totaling more than $2 million.

Source/Images: MEC