EU-funded WaveBoost project improves performance and reliability of wave energy
The success of a pioneering project to move wave energy closer to its full potential has been marked at a Scottish test centre.
The three-year WaveBoost scheme, led by key developer CorPower Ocean, claims to have achieved a step-change improvement to the reliability and performance in the burgeoning sector.
The consortium designed and developed an advanced power take off system allowing wave energy converters (WECs) to operate more safely and reliably in harsh ocean conditions while increasing annual electricity production by 27 per cent.
Developments from the WaveBoost project will be carried forward as CorPower Ocean moves towards the manufacturing, dry testing and deployment of its next full-scale WEC, the C4.
Matt Dickson, WaveBoost project manager and technical project manager at CorPower Ocean, said: “CorPower has a rigorous product verification strategy that follows a structured five-stage process, established as best practice for ocean energy technology by International Energy Agency-OES, ETIP Ocean and Wave Energy Scotland.
“It involves step-wise validation of survivability, performance, reliability and economics, starting with small-scale prototypes in stage one, continued by sub-system testing and then fully integrated WEC in increasing scales up to array demonstration in stage five.
“The successful completion of the WaveBoost project marks a key milestone in our journey and unlocks our progress from stage three into stage four of our programme as we scale our WEC technology to full scale.”
The WaveBoost project, funded by the EU's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, was led by CorPower Ocean with partners Arcos Hydraulik, the Research Institute of Sweden (RISE), EDP Innovação, WavEC Offshore Renewables, the University of Edinburgh and the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney.
The system incorporates a revolutionary pneumatic module that has 80 per cent fewer components, reducing complexity and capital expenditure while improving reliability, compared to previous designs. An energy redistribution system manages fluctuating power input from ocean waves to support grid integration and increase energy production.
On the performance side, new dynamic seals were designed and tested, resulting in 70 per cent improvement in friction, while flow losses have been reduced by up to 90 per cent.
The improvements enabled the levelised cost of energy to drop by 18 to 29 per cent, with operational expenditure expected to decrease by up to 30 per cent.
Lifecycle analysis undertaken on a theoretical 50MW array deployed in Scotland indicated a carbon intensity as low as 31.4 gCO2e/kWh based on the first prototype WEC generation design alone, which the firm says is comparable with other renewable generating power sources.
Henry Jeffrey, University of Edinburgh policy and innovation group, said: “Working with CorPower Ocean and a range of industrial partners on the WaveBoost project has allowed the University of Edinburgh to even further refine our techno-economic models of wave energy systems.
“A key output of the WaveBoost project was a preliminary lifecycle analysis for an array of CorPower Ocean wave energy converters which indicated a carbon intensity over 10 times less than conventional gas turbines.”
