Wave Power Seminar at KTH

Ocean waves are a huge untapped resource of clean energy, with attractive features including higher power density and less variability compared to solar and wind. Phase controlled devices for wave energy harvesting have been researched in since the 1970s and now a new type of resonant Wave Energy Converter has been shown to significantly improve the absorption and conversion efficiency, delivering 5 times higher energy density compared to the previous state-of-the-art. 

This technical breakthrough has been incorporated in a device that is being demonstrated in the HiWave project funded by KIC InnoEnergy and the Swedish Energy Agency. The global power company Iberdrola Engineering, Portuguese WavEC Offshore Renewables and the Swedish developer CorPower Ocean has joined forces with researches from KTH and NTNU to take the technology through full scale deployment. 

During the seminar, two recent milestones of the HiWave project was disclosed: a new phase control technology called Wave Spring and a new test bench where the latest Power-Take-Off system is demonstrated in scale 1:3 at the Machine Design Department of KTH. A historical perspective on wave power will be given by one of the pioneers of modern wave energy research Prof. J. Falnes (NTNU). Prof A. Sarmento (WavEC) will givean overview of the global opportunity, key challenges and current status of development in wave power.

Program:

Wave Power Seminar

14.00-14.20
Bo Normark – KIC InnoEnergy, Tobias Walla - Energimyndigheten, Patrik Möller - CorPower Ocean 
Introduction to the efforts of improving wave power efficiency through the HiWave project.

14.20-15:00
Prof. Johannes Falnes – NTNU (Trondheim).
A historical perspective on wave power development – Resonant point absorbers. “To be a good absorber you need to be a good wave maker” “Small is beautiful” Size and power comparison with phase controlled devices vs passive. (REF. “Heaving buoys, point absorbers & arrays”)

15:00-15:30
Prof Antonio Sarmento, WavEC Offshore renewables (Lisbon).
Wave power opportunity, key challenges & status of development. Scientific validation and numerical modelling of the HiWave Wave Energy Converter. 

15:30-15.55
Björn Bolund, Vattenfall (Stockholm)
Structured product verification of Wave Energy devices. Key lessons from previous projects. Do’s and don’ts regarding prototype scales, performance readiness levels vs technology readiness levels.
  
15:55-16:15 - Coffee break 

16:15-16:40
Patrik Möller, CorPower Ocean (Stockholm).
Introduction of the Wave Energy Converter concept demonstrated in HiWave. New solutions addressing  challenges with low velocity, reciprocating motion and the irregular nature of ocean waves. 

16:40-17:10
Jørgen T. Hals, NTNU (Trondheim).
Introduction to the new WAVE SPRING phase control technology.  
Numerical benchmarking of wave energy converters. Key metrics. 

17:10-17:30
Stefan Svensson, CorPower Ocean, Stefan Björklund, KTH (Stockholm) Hans Hansson, SwePart Transmission (Liatorp)
Cascade gear technology – a new solution for robust conversion of linear-to-rotating motion 

17:30-17:50
Mikel Lasa, CEO KIC InnoEnergy Iberia (Barcelona). A KIC InnoEnergy view on ocean energy. Support programs for industrial innovation projects connecting academia – startups and industry.

Grand Opening - Wave Power Test Bench at KTH

18:00-20:00 
A new generation of Wave Energy Converters is being tested in scale 1:3 using a hardware-in-the-loop test rig at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. The test rig uses a custom designed electromechanical drive system supplying the Power-Take-Off (PTO) with simulated wave loading. The PTO is used to verify and debug all functions and operational modes on-land before the next scale 1:2 HiWave system will be deployed offshore in 2016. The system will be introduced followed by demonstration of the bench in operation, supplying the PTO with mechanical loads that are converted into electricity fed into the Swedish grid.