OceanEnergy completes tank trials of scaled OE35 wave energy device

February 22, 2023, by Amir Garanovic

Irish company OceanEnergy has concluded the latest round of tank testing of its scaled OE35 wave energy device model at Lir-National Ocean Test Facility (Lir NOTF) as part of the WEDUSEA project.

Scale model of OceanEnergy’s OE35 wave energy device (Courtesy of OceanEnergy)

In January 2023, OceanEnergy, which acts as the co-ordinator the €19.6 million WEDUSEA partnership project, tested a scaled model of the OE35 at the Deep Ocean Basin at Lir NOTF.

This was a scale model of the OE35 that will be deployed for sea trials at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) site in the Orkney Isles for a two-year period at a later stage of the WEDUSEA project.

Located in the University College Cork Environmental Research Institute, the Lir NOTF provides world-class laboratory testing for offshore wind, wave and tidal energy devices.

The state-of-the-art facilities at Lir NOTF include four wave tanks that can replicate real ocean conditions and enable testing of various marine innovations, technologies and structures at different scales.

“It can be seen that our recent wave tank tests at Lir NOTF are the latest example of our long term commitment to a rigorous development approach, which places systematic scientific testing and analysis at the very heart of our R&D.

“The WEDUSEA project will continue to follow robust scientific testing principles and the latest industry protocols as we advance the commercialization of wave energy,” WEDUSEA project informed.

Short for ‘Wave Energy Demonstration at Utility Scale to Enable Arrays’, the WEDUSEA project will demonstrate OceanEnergy’s grid-connected 1MW floating wave energy converter OE35 at EMEC’s test site.

Being developed by 14 international partners, the project is ultimately expected to create a technology deployment pathway for a 20MW pilot farm by achieving a significant decrease in the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for wave energy industry.

According to project partners, the successful demonstration of the OE35 in the WEDUSEA project will pave the way for future deployment of multiple devices in an array to form a wave energy farm.