Ocean Power Technologies’ (OPT) PowerBuoy has been deployed in the Adriatic Sea since November 2018 by oil and gas company Eni in a project aiming to demonstrate suitability of wave energy technologies in oil and gas operations.
Operating continuously and error-free for six months, as part of Eni’s MaREnergy project, PB3 PowerBuoy has produced more than 1 MWh cumulative energy to date.
The OPT PowerBuoy will be used to advance Eni’s research and development of proprietary integrated subsea technology systems to allow future applications for remotely controlled field developments powered by wave energy, environmental monitoring and offshore asset inspection using autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs).
The demonstration will see OPT’s device used for subsea battery charging, which eventually may lead to adoption of the device as a standalone charging station and communications platform that would enable the long-term remote operation of AUVs.