CorPower Ocean’s C4 wave energy device, installed offshore Portugal, has survived another major storm off the country’s coast, withstanding waves of up to 18 meters.
As Portugal’s coastline was placed on ‘red alert’ due to rough seas brought by the Domingos storm earlier in November, the Swedish company’s wave energy device was put once again into ‘storm survivability’ mode, developed to ensure that the device exhibits no response to the incoming wave power, limiting the loading on the structure.
Since its deployment in late summer 2023 at the Aguçadoura site located 4 km offshore, the C4 device endured storms Babet, Aline, Ciarán and Domingos, with Domingos storm conditions recorded by Instituto Hidrográfico as the historical record for northern Portugal.
During the most recent storm, the C4 system was monitored from CorPower Ocean’s control center in Stockholm, where reliable operation was confirmed with motion and loads well within design limits.
One of the step change innovations brought to wave energy by CorPower Ocean allows the wave energy converter to be tuned and detuned, altering the system’s response to the conditions. The detuned state creates transparency to incoming waves, similar to the survival function for wind turbines which pitch their blades to protect from over loading.
“The unique storm survival mode enables our overall lightweight and low-cost design which provides robust operation in the harshest ocean conditions. It is combined with advanced phase control technology that amplify power capture in regular ocean conditions,” CorPower Ocean said.
With 300kW power rating , the C4 device has been deployed as part of the HiWave-5 project .