Tritec Marine tweaks OE Buoy design

Scotland-based Tritec Marine had carried out an engineering analysis of Ocean Energy’s OE Buoy that will be deployed off Hawaii later this year, with the design of the wave energy device now optimizied for the deployment and operation.

“Over time, the design has matured substantially and the latest round of engineering analysis conducted by Tritec Marine included global finite element analysis, coupled with hydrodynamic loading, and mooring design,” said George Mermiris, Technical Manager at Tritec Marine. “This resulted in a set of drawings based on which the device will be fabricated.”

As reported at the beginning of February, a marine and industrial fabrication company from Oregon – Vigor – will build the wave energy converter under a $6.5 million contract. The OE Buoy will measure 125 x 59 feet with a draft of 31 feet and has a potential rated capacity of up to 1.25 MW.

The device will be deployed at the US Navy’s Wave Energy Test Site off O’ahu in the fall of 2018, where it will remain on trials for one year. After these trials, the Ireland-based developer Ocean Energy plans to transport the OE Buoy to the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Scotland for another year of testing.

Tritec Marine modelled and analysed the way the wave energy device will perform in real ocean conditions. “The knowledge and insights obtained from this exercise allowed us to adjust and reinforce the design in order to ensure successful deployment and operation,” Mermiris said.

The deployment of the OE Buoy off Hawaii is part of a $12 million project part-funded by the US Department of Energy’s office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), under an agreement committing the American and Irish governments to collaborating on marine hydrokinetic technologies.