Objective
Wave energy has long been recognised as a major renewable source of power capable of making a major contribution to meeting our energy needs. Europe, and in particular, the Atlantic coastline of the Western European states has one of the most favourable wave climates in the world. To date there has been no significant harnessing of this non polluting power source in that no practical solution has previously been found to the technical and commercial difficulties encountered in extracting wavepower at a price acceptable to the consumer. The OSPREY project seeks to apply a range of innovative concepts to the Oscillating Water Column principle in order to improve energy capture whilst at the same time reducing the cost per installed kilowatt. By achieving these aims the OSPREY offers the potential for large scale commercial wave power.
The specific objectives of the project include: The installation of a prototype OSPREY Oscillating Water Column type wave energy converter at Dounreay in Caithness, Scotland for the purposes of validating, at full scale, energy capture, structural loadings and economic forecasts made on the basis of theoretical and model studies.
The provision of a platform to permit the testing and monitoring of pneumatic turbines and control systems and to obtain environmental and structural loading data under real sea conditions.
The design and evaluation of a power take off train comprising pneumatic turbine, electrical generator and control system for subsequent manufacture and fitment to the collector and the construction and testing of the control system.
The project deliverables include: A prototype Wave Energy Collector with a peak pneumatic power capture rating of 2MW which can act as a test bed for turbo- generation and control equipment.
Control Hardware for testing on the Wave Energy Collector.
Field Measurements at full scale of the environmental loadings on a near-shore Wave Energy Collector over an annual cycle.
the energy capture efficiency of the collector in real sea states at full scale compared with predictions made from sinusoidal waves in tank model tests.
An assessment of the short term environmental impact of a near shore Wave Energy Collector.
A report on the operational experience of constructing and deploying a full scale Wave Energy Device.
Applied Research & Technology is a commercial development company established to exploit innovative ideas in the field of wave energy technology. The OSPREY (Ocean Swell Powered Renewable EnergY) project was conceived by Professor A. A. Wells as a result of his examination of the economic limitations of earlier wavepower devices. Concluding that a greater energy capture at lower capital cost was required to permit a widespread application of wave power a design of collector has been developed with a substantially improved performance but with a simpler and less expensive design. Manufacturing costs have been contained by concentrating the design on a lightweight steel shell structure which is readily constructed in the numerous steel fabrication yards available in Europe. In this respect the project offers a market for these extensive facilities which are currently under employed as a result of the run down in shipbuilding and oil related fabrications. Installation costs have been minimised by adopting a philosophy of minimal seabed preparation and by the use of gravity anchoring techniques reliant upon ballasting with locally available seabed material. To achieve an acceptable performance the design is a delicate balance of the requirements of energy capture, of structural integrity, of adequate ballast containment and of stability during towing and placement. Extensive model testing involving the measurement of energy capture, of structural loads and of the performance of various collector shapes during towage and flooding have highlighted a number of potential forms. These tank tests have been supported by detailed structural analyses by external engineering consultants to demonstrate the structural integrity of the device under extreme environmental conditions. These analyses have been taken to the point where they are limited by the accuracy of input data particularly in respect of storm wave loading. The next stage in the commercialisation of wave power is therefore to construct a full scale collector and deploy this in a convenient marine location where it can be readily observed and monitored. This will enable the theories and model tests results to be verified under realistic conditions. The current phase of the project is to construct and deploy the OWC collector on station at a site adjacent to Dounreay in Caithness, Scotland with the purpose of monitoring the pneumatic energy capture and structural performance. It is anticipated that electrical power generation equipment will be retrofitted during a subsequent phase of the project.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electronic engineering control systems
- engineering and technology environmental engineering energy and fuels renewable energy hydroelectricity marine energy wave power
- engineering and technology mechanical engineering vehicle engineering naval engineering sea vessels
- humanities philosophy, ethics and religion philosophy
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Coordinator
IV1 1LZ Inverness
United Kingdom
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