Marine Technology Reporter Blogs - energy

The unique FloWave Ocean Energy Research Facility, represents a great asset for reducing risks and refining performance of new marine energy designs to scale before building a first prototype, such as tide or wave energy farms. Its circular shape means waves have no reflections and can come from multiple directions, to mimic stormy seas. FloWave was conceived for cutting edge academic research into wave and tidal current interactions, the FloWave is also an amazing tool for commercial developers to ensure their technologies and projects perform as expected. FloWave is the only research wave pool in the world capable of validating CFD layout, micro-siting and energy yield predictions with physical modeling, before companies commit to investing tens of millions in the project itself.

Tidal Current Technology extracts energy from the high tide bulge created by the gravitational pull of the Sun and Moon moving horizontally around the Earth’s surface. It does not require blocking of any waterways, and does not have the adverse environmental effects associated with Tidal Barrages. Coastal locations with strong tide variations and strong currents abound around all continents and Tidal current power gives us another opportunity to harness power from the sea without polluting it. If we take into consideration that seawater is 832 times denser than air, then a 1knot current has more kinetic energy than 70 km/h of wind. Tidal current energy takes this kinetic energy available in ocean currents and converts it into electricity.

Wave energy is produced when electricity generators are placed on the surface of the ocean. The energy provided is most often used in desalination plants, power plants and water pumps. Energy output is determined by wave height, wave speed, wavelength, and water density. Waves are generated by the wind as it blows across the sea surface, so that energy is transferred from the wind to the waves. Wave energy is sometimes confused with tidal energy, which is quite different. Waves travel vast distances across oceans at great speed. The longer and stronger the wind blows over the sea surface, the higher, longer, faster and more powerful are the waves.

According to OTEC International LLC (OTI), in 1870, Jules Verne introduced the concept of ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) in his book, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Within a decade, American, French and Italian scientists are said to have been working on the concept but the Frenchman, physicist Jacques-Arsene d’Arsonval, is generally credited as the father of the concept for using ocean temperature differences to create power. “I owe it all to the ocean; it produces electricity, and electricity gives heat, light, motion, and, in a word, life to the Nautilus.” Jules Verne, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. D’Arsonval’s student, Georges Claude, built the first OTEC power plant in 1930 in Cuba, which produced 22 kilowatts of electricity.

This month the first serious experiment with wave energy officially begins in Brazil. The first wave energy plant in the country was installed in the northeast state of Ceará, more specifically in the port of Pecém, located 60km from the state capital Fortaleza and will be officially launched during the Rio+20 taking place in Rio de Janeiro. With the Brazilian coastline being 8,000km long, scientists from COPPE/UFRJ, estimate that with wave energy plants up and down the coast the country could produce up to 87 gigawatts of which 20% could conceivably be converted in electricity, this would add up to 17% of the country´s total installed electrical energy capacity.

Construction will soon begin on what is to be the largest tidal turbine energy project in Europe, following the Scottish government’s official approval of the concept and construction plans. The tidal stream project let by MeyGen Ltd. is at the forefront of world tidal energy development and will harvest the tidal resource from the strong tidal streams present along the Pentland Firth in an area that lies in the channel between the island of Stroma (part of the Orkney chain of islands) and the northeasterly tip of the Scottish mainland, encompassing almost 3.5km2 of fast flowing water. MeyGen’s goal is to deliver a fully operational, 398MW renewable energy plant powered purely by the tide, generating the equivalent electricity to power around 40,000 Scottish homes by 2020.

The Pelamis P2 is the second-generation Pelamis Wave Energy machine and includes a number of significant design improvements. The P2 design has been sold to utility customers E.ON and ScottishPower Renewables and are currently being tested for a number of commercial scale projects. At 180m long, 4m diameter and weighing around 1350 tons (mostly sand ballast), the P2 Pelamis is wider, longer and heavier than the P1 design machine. This allows the Pelamis to capture more energy while substantially reducing the cost per MW. Comprised of five tubes with four joints, the P2 has an extra tube section and an extra power module. An improved power take off system for the P2 allows higher efficiencies, enhanced control resolution and increased reliability.

Relying on the expected growth of the O&G industry in Brazil and the influx of new rigs and FPSOs in the Brazilian offshore market, British manufacturer, Rolls Royse is set to make a $60 million investment in a new plant to build energy modules for offshore rigs. The plant will be located in Santa Cruz, in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. The manufacturing plant is slated to begin operations by the third quarter of 2012. Rolls Royse is also seriously considering another $60 million investment in Brazil in the next 2 or 3 years, in the O&G sector and in other sectors such as airplane turbines. The location in Santa Cruz was chosen because of its proximity to the company´s client base in Rio de Janeiro and also to its proximity to the Campos Basin…

The new facilities, including bold construction techniques, sustainability and eco-efficiency, represent an advance for Petrobras’ technology development. With the expansion the complex on Fundão Island will occupy more than 300 thousand m² making it one of the largest centers of applied research in the world. There will be various laboratories designed to meet the technological demands of Petrobras’ business areas, in particular, the laboratories of Biotechnology, Environment and Gas & Energy stand out. The expansion will also include modern laboratories dedicated exclusively to meeting the demands of the pre-salt projects. The CENPES expansion is part of a Petrobras strategy to expand the experimental capacity of the Brazilian technological park.