Hydrodynamicists at Pelamis Wave Power have published a scientific paper that could have profound implications for the race to commercial production of wave energy converter machines, after proving the theoretical advantage of line absorbers over point absorbers.
The paper entitled “Maximum wave-power absorption by attenuating line absorbers under volume constraints” is due to appear shortly in Applied Ocean Research. It extends existing wave power theory to long, narrow absorbers of different sizes, and answers important questions on the ultimate limits of wave power absorption with practical engineering constraints that could have real implications for developers of wave power machines.
The key theoretical results of the paper are:
The results suggest that the line absorber configuration used by Pelamis Wave Power could have significant commercial advantages when scaling up wave energy converter machines and reducing the cost of energy generated from wave power. In addition to the substantially greater power available per tonne of materials used to construct the machine, installing fewer, larger line absorbers offers valuable savings on grid connection, anchoring systems, and maintenance that are not available from point absorbers.
David Pizer , Principal Scientist at Pelamis Wave Power , said:
“The wave power industry is poised to enter a commercial phase of development by scaling up energy production and reducing costs. This paper confirms that the long, snaking approach of Pelamis offers the greatest potential to generate low-cost, renewable energy from ocean waves on a large scale.”
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Offshore WIND staff, April 25, 2012; Image: Pelamis