The Marine Institute of Ireland has provided an overview of the testing activities on the SeaPower wave energy device undertaken at the SmartBay marine renewables test site.
Seapower Platform, an attenuator wave energy converter designed by the Irish engineering company Sea Power, was installed at Galway Bay site in October last year for the first phase of testing.
During trials, the 1:5 scale device was exposed to significant wave heights of more than 4 meters caused by winter storms, demonstrating its survivability in extreme conditions.
The device operates parallel to the wave direction, capturing energy from the relative motion of the two arms in the device as the wave passes them.
Having wrapped up the trials in March 2017, Sea Power said the information gathered during testing activities will be included in the future structural and mechanical design calculations to optimize the full-scale platforms.