28th April 2017
Mocean Energy has been awarded £730,000 by Wave Energy Scotland (WES) after successfully competing to join stage two of their innovative technology development programme.
WES – which was established by the Scottish Government to support the development of commercial wave energy technologies – selected Mocean Energy as one of the most promising of eight applications from stage one of its NWEC programme, which focused on solutions to capture wave movement.
Mocean Energy is now one of four projects to progress to stage two of the programme which is expected to run until autumn 2018.
Once this stage concludes, the project teams can apply for stage three funding to develop a scaled prototype device for real sea testing at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney.
Mocean Energy Managing Director Cameron McNatt said:
“This award endorses our technology roadmap and will allow us to further develop the performance and engineering of the Mocean Energy wave energy converter.
“The latest advances and discoveries of the numerical and experimental programme will inform changes to the machine shape and size to increase the power it produces per tonne of displacement.
“An intensive effort will also be focused on engineering the physical structure of the machine and the power take-off (PTO). In respect of the mass of material used – and therefore cost – the PTO must efficiently convert the mechanical power of the waves into electrical power; likewise, the structure needs to be strong and resistant to fatigue,” McNatt concludes
Mocean Energy is focused on the design of the machine shape to optimise the power production response to the wavelengths of significant energy. This focus has resulted in new-to-the-industry geometries that show significant benefits in power absorption and survival compared to traditional wave energy converter designs. Mocean expects to further optimise the shape in stage two.
The medium-term ambition of the project is the realise the machine’s design as protype and test it in the sea in the Wave Energy Scotland stage three project.