AquaBuOY Wave Energy Technology Advances

[jpak]

http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=46165

The emerging wave energy sector is moving ahead with a project led by Finavera Renewables Ltd. and Dunlop Oil and Marine -- supported by a Carbon Trust Applied Research Grant. A key part of AquaEnergy's AquaBuOY technology, the Hose-Pump Validation Project, is an offshore wave energy converter whose successful completion marks the next step in its commercialization.

The Hose-Pump is part of the AquaBuOY wave energy technology from AquaEnergy Development UK Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Finavera Renewables. The hollow elastic cylinder can pump fluid when it is extended and contracted; when connected to a buoy, wave action can be harnessed to produce pressurized fluid via cyclic extensions. Multiple devices coupled to a standard hydropower turbine and generator provide a complete conversion solution, from wave energy to electricity.

The focus for this joint AquaEnergy and Dunlop Oil and Marine project, co-funded by the Carbon Trust's Applied Research Program, was to assess the Hose-Pump's mechanical and fatigue properties. The outcome of the project has successfully confirmed theoretical prediction of the Hose-Pump operating characteristic under static and dynamic test conditions.

The Carbon Trust provided a grant of GBP 168,000 for this phase of commercialization to bring the technology to full-scale deployment. Finavera Renewables' planned first European project is a staged 100-megawatt (MW) deployment at Figuera de Foz, Portugal.

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[skids]

1. "Hose-Pump Validation Project"?

Geez. Talk about bad marketting! They couldn't think of a better name? :-)

[mopinko]

2. hey, they might need to sell their idea to congress one day

where it would be very helpful to have it sound vaguely obscene.

[whistle]

3. There are five videos at the link below showing how waves and tides

...are tapped for producing electrical energy:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/working_lunch/4849540.stm


VIDEO: Film One - Sea Snake

VIDEO: Film Two - PowerBuoy

VIDEO: Film Three - Tidal Power

VIDEO: Film Four - Comparing The Costs

VIDEO: Your Questions on Renewable Energy