Belgian wave developer Laminaria has upgraded its eponymously-titled device to 200kW from 100kW following tank testing in conjunction with Innosea.
The tank testing was conducted at the Coastal, Ocean and Sediment Transport (COAST) laboratory at Plymouth University as part of the OCEANERA-NET funded Lamwec project.
Project partner Innosea tested a 1:16 scale model at COAST to explore the load regimes that the device will experience when it is tested at full-scale later this year at Orkney’s European Marine Energy Centre.
Innosea project lead Rémy Pascal said: “We found that the device performance at the EMEC wave test site could be significantly improved by using a larger device than the one initially planned for before the tank tests.
“Additionally, the tests show that clever use of submergence will allow control of the power being captured regardless of the significant wave height, which is a positive outcome concerning the dimensioning of the power take-off.”
The main focus of Lamwec is to prove the survivability of a pre-commercial scale wave device which incorporates Laminaria’s load management mechanism and storm protection system.
Laminaria chief executive Steven Nauwelaerts said the tank tests have provided confidence in the concept of the device’s survival mechanism.
“The irregular wave tests proved that the concepts for the two survival mechanisms work: both the overdrive mechanism and the submergence efficiently managed to keep the loads in the mooring lines below a programmable threshold.”
Image: Laminaria wave device (Laminaria)
