Carnegie said it has achieved the first milestones of its new CETO ‘Digital Development Pathway’.
Namely, the company has developed the machine-learning-based Wave Predictor capable of predicting the characteristics of waves that will reach the CETO Unit up to 30 seconds in the future.
This is the first product in Carnegie’s so-called intelligent control products which will be capable of increasing the energy captured by a CETO unit and also has potential as a standalone commercial product.
Carnegie’s suite of control products is comprised of the Wave Predictor, Wave Solver and Wave Controller.
The next step is to validate Carnegie’s Wave Predictor using physical wave data.
Carnegie has been awarded funding through the European funded Marinet2 Project that provides 10 days of wave tank testing at the Cantabria Coastal and Ocean Basin in Spain.
The company had planned to undertake the tank testing validation in early May 2020. However, this will now be delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Wave Predictor will provide data that can be used to determine the forces that will be applied to the CETO Unit in the next step, the Wave Solver.
The final step – Wave Controller will utilise the outputs of the Wave Solver to optimally control the power take off (PTO) and maximise a CETO Unit’s energy capture.
Furthermore, Carnegie has undertaken a landscaping & market study on potential generator technologies and suppliers, progressing the development of a new fully electric PTO, which converts the wave-driven motion of the CETO buoy into electricity.
The exact generator selected will depend on the outcome of the scale study currently ongoing as part of the CETO Architecture deliverable due by the end of Q3 2020. However, it is likely that direct-drive permanent magnet generator (DD-PMG) technology will be preferred.