The EU-funded OPERA project has received the Yoshio Masuda prize for the contribution to EWTEC 2017 through reports about wave energy developments being progressed in Spain.
The OPERA consortium presented multiple conference publications about the development of a full-scale wave energy device, currently under demonstrations at the BIMEP test site in the north of Spain.
The work presented was devoted to the design and field data collection studies, including environmental conditions, device motions and mooring tensions, for the floating oscillating water column wave energy converter, dubbed Marmok-A-5, which is developed by Oceantec Energías Marinas.
OPERA is an international project consortium, coordinated by Tecnalia, comprising 12 academic and industrial partners.
The project aims to develop and de-risk technologies that will reduce the cost of operating wave energy devices at sea by 50% and subsequently accelerate the roll-out of marine renewable energy.
Dave Parish of the University of Exeter team, led by Professor Lars Johanning, accepted the prize on behalf of the OPERA team.
The researchers from the University of Exeter led two publications as part of the OPERA project with a focus on the design and evaluation of novel elastomeric mooring tethers developed within the Exeter team, and the analysis of the ‘Karratu’ mooring system to assess cost and engineering challenges for marine renewable energy moorings.
The European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference (EWTEC) 2017, held in Ireland from August 27 to September 1, was focused on the commercialization of the marine energy sector, with over 500 delegates presenting over 70 scientific presentations over four days.
Tony Lewis , lead organizer of this year’s EWTEC, said: “Creating jobs, providing clean energy, protecting our environment and harnessing the blue economy are all reasons why ocean energy is important for Ireland and globally.”