Wave Energy Conversion News

Looking back, it is easy to wonder if one could have done better by taking the other fork in the road. I grew up in Holland in a maritime family and am pretty sure I would have stuck with maritime there. In 1968, when I was 8 years old, my father left Holland America Line and joined the United States Salvage Association. At the same time, their main customer, the U.S. marine insurance industry, became heavily involved in the development of North Sea offshore oil and gas, and it resulted in an economic boom that made USSA’s Rotterdam office wildly profitable.

At the SMM Hamburg's Offshore Dialogue online conference on February 2, international experts will discuss current trends in the offshore wind farms segment, technical challenges facing tidal and wave energy conversion, and innovative ocean monitoring technologies."About 70% of our planet is covered by water. The Earth's oceans play a key role in shaping the global climate. The more important it is to gather and evaluate as much information as possible about the composition of this ecosystem and how it changes.

Italian oil group Eni is joining forces with shipbuilder Fincantieri, power grid group Terna and state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) to develop wave power stations.The agreement, which follows the understanding signed last 19 April, will launch the first phase of a joint project to convert the Inertial Sea Wave Energy Converter (ISWEC) pilot project, an innovative system that transforms energy generated by waves into electricity, into an industrial scale power station, making its application and use immediately available.The partnership agreement will focus on two phases: during the first phase, the companies will develop a business model and define a deployment plan for Italy.

Recently I was attending the United Nations Science Technology and Innovation conference (STI Forum). While I attended to present on Wave Energy Conversion, the main subject at the conference was STEM education and STEM gender inequality. Almost every country in the world reports a lack of available STEM educated workers, and also reports that they have had problems engaging the non-male population in STEM professions.The discussions were extremely far and wide ranging, but when all was said and done…

Wave-generated power could be considered the Rodney Dangerfield of offshore renewable energy sources; it gets no respect. There have been a number of high-profile, expensive failures that have conspired to give the sector a poor reputation despite a number of engineering advances. A new entrant is SurfWEC offering a patented “surf-making” Wave Energy Converter which has been in development since 2007. Its developers promise it will stand out from the field and perform where others have failed. How?

Diverse Newbuild & Repair Business Buoys 2018The year 2018 is off to good start at Vigor. The Harbor Island facility welcomed a new drydock christened the Evolution. The $20 million Evolution is the third drydock at Vigor’s Seattle facility and largest in the Puget Sound region, measuring 640 x 115.5 ft. with a lift capacity of 22,000 LT.Other investments in Seattle include a buildout of a dedicated aluminum production facility which greatly expands Vigor’s fabrication capabilities and capacity for workboats…

U.S. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that nine teams have been named finalists in the Wave Energy Prize—a 20-month design-build-test competition—and will proceed to the next phase of the competition. The nine finalists and two alternates, identified from the 17 remaining official qualified teams, will continue their quest to double the energy captured from ocean waves and win a prize purse totaling more than $2 million. Each of the finalists and alternates will now receive seed funding from DOE to develop 1/20th scale models of their wave energy converter (WEC) technologies. These models will be tested at the nation's most advanced wave-making facility…

SNAME announced the recipients of the Graduate Scholarships awarded for year 2015-16. Wilbur N. Landers Scholarship Award goes to Alyssa M. William M. Kennedy Scholarship Award has been won by Michael T. Recipient of Tommy L Richards Scholarship Award is Russell George Forthuber, 2009 Marine Engineering Systems graduate of the U.S. Alan C. McClure Scholarship Award has been bestowed on James McNeill Landreth, 2008 graduate of the U.S. John V. Frederick H. The winner of the David A. O'Neil Scholastic Award is Anthony Donato Nigro, 1991 Marine Engineer graduate of S.U.N.Y. Maritime College,  to study in Master's of Marine Engineering program at the U.S.

Ricardo has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy to administer a ocean Wave Energy Converter (WEC) prize challenge, aimed at helping to bring this potential source of clean energy to commercial scale. Wave energy conversion is technology that uses the motion of ocean waves to create electricity. The WEC Prize aims to attract innovative and next generation ideas from new and existing wave energy developers by offering a monetary prize and providing an opportunity for tank testing and evaluation of scaled WEC prototypes.

Ocean Power Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: OPTT) announced financial results for its fiscal fourth quarter and year ended April 30, 2011. • Contract backlog increased to a record $8.9 million as of April 30, 2011. This reflects $10.3 million of new orders brought in during fiscal year 2011, including recent US Department of Energy (“DOE”) awards for the PB150 program in Reedsport, Oregon and for development of the next generation PB500 PowerBuoy. • Revenue increased by 31% for the twelve months ended April 30, 2011 compared to fiscal 2010, reflecting orders from the US Navy, DOE and the United Kingdom’s Technology Strategy Board. • Achieved Lloyd’s Register certification for the PB150 PowerBuoy design…

Scottish marine energy technology developer, AWS Ocean Energy, has started testing its new wave energy device in Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. The Inverness based company has deployed a 1/9th scale of its AWS-III device, a ring-shaped multi-cell surface-floating wave power system, the result of almost two years of intensive research and development work. AWS Ocean Energy is aiming to deploy a full-system prototype AWS-III during 2012 and a pre-commercial demonstrator plant during 2013.

The focused panel sessions at the Society of Naval Architects and Engineers (SNAME) Annual Meeting and Expo (October 21-23 at the Rhode Island Convention Center in Providence, Rhode Island) will feature four timely topics: Electric Ships; Renewable Energy from the Oceans; Unmanned and Autonomous Ships of the Future; and Ship Efficiency in the Greenhouse Gas Era. Each two-hour panel session will be chaired and moderated by experienced SNAME members. Each session will have three leading experts who will make thirty minute presentations on their area of expertise, followed by a moderated thirty minute discussion period which will include questions and answers from the audience.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued the first license for a hydrokinetic energy project. The license was issued to Finavera Renewables Ocean Energy, Ltd. for construction and operation of a wave energy conversion system in the Pacific Ocean at Makah Bay in Washington State. The license is conditioned on the company obtaining all other necessary permits and authorizations prior to commencing construction. When and if constructed, the project would consist of four 250-watt steel wave energy conversion buoys and an associated mooring/anchoring and electrical connection system. (HK Law)