Florida's Wing Wave Energy Generator: Hydropower: Eco20/20

Florida's Wing Wave Energy Generator

Wave energy has huge potential, but it's a relatively untapped energy source. That may change for the United States now that companies such as SebaiCMET and Clean & Green Enterprises Inc. have their attention directed toward a prototype wave energy system recently tested by a group of Florida Institute of Technology engineering students, and their advisor, Professor Stephen Wood.

Testing the Concept

* In the test, structures called 'wave wings' were mounted on a platform and deployed on the ocean floor. In November of 2010 the team dropped the 6,000-pound wings and one-ton generator into 40 feet of water, northeast of Fort Pierce, Florida. Then, in December of 2010, the team retrieved the equipment.

* While submersed, the 8-foot-tall, fifteen foot wide, aluminum wings waved back and forth on the ocean floor and collected energy from the waves. When swells hit the wings they shifted and moved a rod, converting the elliptical motion of the swells into a linear-mechanical motion that spun a generator sitting between the wings. The generator itself was sealed in a steel case and covered with a special paint to prevent corrosion.

Development Potential

* Someday soon, arrays with hundreds of such units might power entire counties, Wood suggested. The technology could potentially provide up to half of Florida's total electricity. Estimations suggest that 1000 wings could meet the energy needs for 200,000 homes. Wave power could also be used to purify ocean water by linking the wave wing devices to desalination plants. Each unit could make enough energy to desalinate about 500 million gallons of water a year.

* One of the challenges, the wing's developers say, will be dealing with strong hurricanes. They claim the equipment could withstand up to Category 3 hurricane forces if the wings, via remote control, were folded into a locking mechanism as a storm approached.

o "My biggest worry is that they're going to be covered in sand," Wood said.

o Wave energy does not require stormy weather. There is sufficient swell even on calm days, to sway the wings through their full 30 degree range of motion.

* Europeans actually pioneered the concept. The first undersea commercial wave farm is being developed in Scotland by a wave energy company called AWS Ocean Energy Ltd. The company has secured major funding from the Scottish Executive.

* Another company, called BioPower Systems, is developing a somewhat similar technology for utility-scale energy production in Australia. In the Australian version, either a wing or float will be attached to the top of the generator via a power conversion module called an 'o-drive', which will use hydraulics to convert the mechanical energy of wave motion into the fluid pressure that spins the generator.

In any case, numerous studies across the globe have confirmed that the energy potential of wave movement is unremitting and plentiful. Major development may not be imminent, but it's clearly inevitable.