Finnish wave energy developer AW-Energy and Queen’s University Belfast are set to collaborate in developing a towable foundation for the WaveRoller device.
The collaboration, expected to last for 6 months, involves performing tank tests on AW-Energy’s WaveRoller wave energy device and its re-deployable foundation with the aim of developing a more cost-effective solution.
The project began on July 15 this year, with the completion date set for January 15, 2018, under support from Ocean Energy Europe’s MaRINET2 program, according to AW-Energy.
Christopher Ridgewell , CTO at AW-Energy, said: “Queen’s University Belfast has built up a lot of experience tank testing nearshore wave energy converters and plenty of research into nearshore wave energy converters has been conducted by the team at Belfast.”
Trevor Whittaker , Professor of Coastal Engineering at Queen’s University Belfast, added: “We are delighted to be using our knowledge of wave power technology acquired over the past 40 years to support AW Energy in their R&D. The collaboration will utilize our facilities which were purpose-built for the development of wave energy in the nearshore environment.”
The project is hoped to be the first step in a series of collaborations with Queen’s University to develop the WaveRoller device further, AW-Energy noted.