Swedish wave energy developer CorPower Ocean will test its HiDrive power take-off system at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney.
The testing forms part of Wave Energy Scotland’s PTO call that, combined with funding from KIC InnoEnergy and the Swedish Energy Agency, completes a €6.5m funding round for dry rig testing of a half-scale prototype system followed by an ocean deployment at EMEC’s test site in Scapa Flow.
The project will involve a five-month programme of cyclical dry and wet testing of the system in Orkney, culminating in a performance assessment by EMEC.
Prior to arriving in Orkney, the PTO will undergo a five-month dry test period in Stockholm using the same test rig to de-risk the ocean deployment.
The PTO technology featuring CorPower’s WaveSpring technology will be taken through a programme of structured verification guided by EMEC, alongside Iberdrola Engineering, the University of Edinburgh, and WavEC Offshore Renewables.
CorPower chief executive Patrik Moller said: “We are very excited to be partnering with EMEC, as they bring immense amounts of experience and lessons learned from previous wave projects on Orkney. We see a great opportunity to establish a long lasting presence in Scotland.”
The testing programme will incorporate the installation of a bespoke dry test rig at EMEC for hardware-in-the-loop testing.
The test rig will have the ability to subject wave devices to the full range of wave loads corresponding to the most challenging sea states, the company said.
EMEC director Neil Kermode added: “This test rig will act as a lasting legacy of Corpower’s test programme and WES’ foresight, as it will be available to support the development of other wave and tidal energy converters in the future.”
Image: Orkney wave test site (EMEC)
