About
By 2050 ocean energy could provide 10% of Europe’s current electricity needs.
The oceans represent the world’s largest untapped source of renewable energy and by 2050 ocean energy could provide 10% of Europe’s current electricity needs.
The COMPACT Project is embarking an important mission to support the development of emerging ocean technology by accelerating the commercialization of wave power.
CorPower Ocean and OPS Composite solutions are spearheading the ‘industry-advancing’ initiative combining world-class WEC (Wave Energy Converter) design knowledge with vast experience in composite pressure vessels for offshore applications.
The COMPACT acronym comes from the project’s longer definition - COMposite Pressure cAsing for CosT- and energy-effective wave power generation.
In essence, it will see the development of new technology to address two common challenges experienced in state-of-the-art wave energy technology – weight and price.
The team will design, test, manufacture and certify an innovative lightweight (composite) pressure cylinder, which is one of the key components of CorPower’s Wave Energy Converters (WECs).
The end result will see COMPACT’s full-scale certified cylinder integrated into CorPower’s ‘next-generation’ C5 WEC - set for deployment in the Atlantic Ocean as part of the pioneering HiWave-5 Demonstration Project.
DETAILS
COMPACT's main objectives are:
- To improve the performance and reduce the price of wave energy technology, thus contributing to its quicker commercialization
- To actively contribute to the Portuguese Industrial Strategy for Ocean Renewable Energies and promote jobs and growth in the region.
To achieve its objectives, COMPACT will develop, test, manufacture and certify an innovative light-weight pressure casing (cylinder), a core component of the wave energy converter’s (WEC) pre-tension system.
The system provides downward force on the buoy, replacing the mass that would otherwise be needed to balance the buoyancy at midpoint. As a result, the WECs natural period of oscillation is reduced, and shorter than that of all ocean waves.
This natural state of the machine is the detuned mode where the device has little response to incoming waves. By making the WEC significantly lighter and using cheaper materials and production technology, the COMPACT solution will lead to both increased energy efficiency and decreased cost of energy.
COMPACT will build on the findings of the recently completed EU-project WaveBoost, also coordinated by CorPower Ocean, benefitting from broad insight and knowledge on composite materials behavior.
A dedicated Work Package is also being created in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh to perform an Environmental Life-cycle Analysis (LCA) signaling the project’s firm commitment to sustainable energy production.
The project runs from October 2020 to April 2024 with the following schedule:
