The first commercial-scale UMACK anchor has completed pre-deployment checks at CorPower Ocean’s facility in northern Portugal ahead of offshore installation as part of the HiWave-5 wave energy project.
Developed by a European consortium, the innovative UMACK technology represents a geotechnical breakthrough allowing 4-5 times higher vertical load capacity compared to a standard monopile of the same size, according to project partners.
This may enable efficient low-cost anchoring for offshore structures across sectors such as wave and tidal energy, floating wind and aquaculture.
The pioneering anchor solution will first be deployed with CorPower’s C4 wave energy converter at the Aguçadoura site, part of the flagship HiWave-5 Project.
It has been dimensioned to provide more than 15MN of vertical holding capacity, and resist hundred million load cycles.
With on-land tests complete in Viana do Castelo port, the UMACK anchor is ready to be installed into the seabed using a rapid, low-noise vibratory driving technique assisted by Dieseko Equipment, with Maersk Supply Service engaged in sea operations.
The UMACK project consortium includes Ternan Energy, CorPower Ocean, Sustainable Marine, TTI Marine Renewables, the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) and marine renewable energy modelling experts from the University of Edinburgh.
The project has also been supported by collaborators Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy System (IWES), Dieseko Group, and University of Dundee, among others.
The HiWave-5 demonstration project aims to convert CorPower’s wave technology into a bankable product by 2024, by proving the survivability, performance and economics of a grid-connected array of wave energy converters in northern Portugal.