Global Maritime London's Engineering team is currently designing a mooring system and flexible riser for a wave energy converter (WEC) developed by Wavepiston in Denmark.
The WEC consists of 24 vertical panels, that through the action of the waves, pump pressurised seawater to a sub-station where the Power Take Off takes place. The string of panels is suspended between 2 buoys which are moored to the seabed. The WEC is going to be deployed at the PLOCAN test location in Grand Canarias.
“The design work for Wavepiston will further strengthen Global Maritime as a leading expert in WEC offshore moorings.”
The WEC is unique because it uses standard off the shelf offshore mooring components, the power take-off is not subsea but on land or on an easily accessible substation, which lowers the grid connection costs. Also the system is segmented, which makes it easy to ship and deploy.
There are various subtle technical difference in this mooring system compared to vessel moorings. For instance the panels will fold over as a protection mechanism against overloading, and this is included in the modelling of the mooring system.
In addition, GM are one of the partners to the Horizon 2020 project OPERA, where our role is to provide marine advisory and numerical validation of the mooring system.
Between 2010 and 2018 we have worked with Ocean Power Technologies (OTC) to provide mooring design, marine operations and mooring procurement for three separate WECs. The PB150 was installed in the Moray firth test site, PB40 at the New Jersey test site, and the PB3 unit is designed for deployment at the Amelia B platform in the Adriatic Sea.
