Five arrays of remote ocean-going buoys in US waters have been providing researchers with data from more than 900 different instruments. Small-scale wind and solar energy harvesters typically provide enough power to run the system full blast only 70% of the time, even with energy storage systems on board.
However, the obstacles to commercial deployment have been significant. Wave energy converters need to withstand harsh ocean environments and severe storms. They also need to resist saltwater and other sources of marine fouling, and they need to do it economically., but the Energy Department needs to take it to the next level for the Coastal Array project.
The system must also be able to harvest energy without interfering with measurements and data collection, and without interfering with the mooring system and other operational elements of the buoy.That’s a pretty tall order, but last year Sandia did narrow down the choices to three potential concepts for further examination.
Wave energy converters don’t generally get a lot of media attention, but the Energy Department is pulling out all the stops for this project. WPTO also notes that Sandia and Woods Hole are also collaborating with Evergreen Innovations, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, East Carolina University, and Johns Hopkins University in addition to the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Ocean Observatories Initiative.
“A motor/generator is employed in parallel with the spring to harvest power from the system,” Sandia explains. “In fact, because of its quasi-infinite travel, during such conditions, the WEC could stay active and help to mitigate damage to the buoy and its sensors by taking kinetic energy out of the system,” Sandia notes.
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