SWEDEN STUDY – WAVE POWER WORKS

The headline says it all: Wave energy works. On coastlines around the world, bold entrepreneurs are ambitiously seeking the ideal technology but one thing is emerging as certain: Wave energy is no incipient theory, it is a substantive energy source awaiting harvest.

A linear wave energy generator designed by an Uppsala University Engineering Department PhD candidate has the unique capacity to capture slow-flowing waves, below the 1500 rpm required by other devices, efficiently. It converts the slow waves’ energy to a rapid rotating movement.

Rafael Waters, doctoral candidate: “Instead of trying to adapt conventional energy technology to the special challenges of wave energy, we developed a technology that is adapted to the ocean from the start…”

One challenge remains: Optimization.

Waters: “With smaller buoys and lower power output, there is less stress on the wave power station. On the other hand, the goal is to produce as much power as possible. This is ultimately an economic consideration, and we want to understand how to optimize the construction.”

Considering the potential of wave energy worldwide, this seems like a young man with a future. He certainly has a marketable name. It’s the best name-coincidence in science since the author of the textbook on surgery named Hamburger.

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Wave Power Facility Successful in Sweden
December 9, 2008 (Science Daily)

WHO
Rafael Waters, Doctoral Candidate, Department of Engineering Science, Swedish Centre for Renewable Electric Energy Conversion, Uppsala University; Other PhD candidates; Mats Leijon, Supervising Professor, Department of Engineering Science, Swedish Centre for Renewable Electric Energy Conversion, Uppsala University

WHAT
Research at Sweden's Uppsala University confirms the viability of wave energy as a major source of New Energy.

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WHEN
- Three years of research concluded with Waters’ defense of his dissertation at the university December 12.
- Next year two more plants will be added, forming one of the first wave energy parks anywhere in the world.
- Within a few years.the park will include ten plants.

WHERE
- The Waters/Uppsala wave power plant is on the bottom of the Atlantic, ~2 kilometers off the west coast of Sweden, near Lysekil.
- Sweden’s wave energy potential is estimated at 10 Terawatt-hours of electricity per year, about the output of 12 nuclear plants.
- According to Waters, Norway’s coasts have 10 times the wave energy potential of Sweden’s.

WHY
- Waters played a leading role in designing and constructing the wave energy facility as part of his doctoral project & dissertation for Uppsala University
- Special engineering with simple mechanical construction makes the wave energy station uniquely durable and maintenance-free.
- Waters and colleagues are still determining parameters such as power output and buoy size that will render maximum power production.
- The 3-generator installation that will be connected in 2009 will provide enough power for 60 homes.

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QUOTES
Waters, explaining the simplicity of the linear generator: “…a wave energy station with an ordinary generator needs energy transmission systems such as gearboxes or hydraulic systems and other complicated details that wear out and require much more maintenance than a linear generator.. Our generator has functioned without any trouble every time we started it up over the years, even though it has received no maintenance and has sometimes stood still for months.”