Research and Development

NREL prepares four wave energy devices for PacWave South deployment

NREL prepares four wave energy devices for PacWave South deployment

Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are helping four wave energy devices prepare to survive a big first: They will be the first technologies deployed at PacWave South, a grid-connected wave energy test site off the Oregon coast that opens in 2025.

NREL’s pre-PacWave lab support, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office, will help ensure these devices and three additional earlier-stage designs can edge closer to commercial success or ace their open-ocean trial.

And the upcoming PacWave trials can help more than just individual devices get that edge; they could also help build confidence in the entire wave energy industry, NREL said.

“Wave energy resources are predictable and reliable,” said Michael Lawson, marine energy group manager for NREL’s water power research and development program. That makes wave energy a dependable partner for other, more variable renewable energy resources, like wind energy and solar power. Because of that, Lawson said, “wave energy could help support our country’s transition to clean energy.”

The U.S. marine energy resource equates to about 60% of the country’s annual electricity needs. To harness a portion of that power, researchers must validate and refine today’s technologies by subjecting devices to both lab-fabricated waves and the real thing at test sites like PacWave or the U.S. Navy’s Wave Energy Test Site in Kaneohe, Hawaii. The Hawaii site offers a gentler transition from lab to ocean, with waves about four times less energetic than those that roll through PacWave South.

“PacWave’s test site will expose devices to the harsh ocean conditions necessary to rigorously test their performance and reliability,” Lawson said. But those conditions mean testing at PacWave South can be a riskier, though necessary, step for the four wave energy devices.

With help from NREL’s water power experts and instruments, four companies — CalWave Power Technologies Inc., Columbia Power Technologies, Littoral Power Systems and Portland State University (working with Aquaharmonics) — will put their prototypes through rigorous testing to see if they can withstand extreme waves, corrosive salt water and the constant pressure exerted by wave after wave. Three other companies — Dehlsen Associates, Integral Consulting and Oscilla Power Inc. — will receive feedback on their designs so they can hone them before building a prototype.

NREL’s experts can, for example, stress-test different components to see how long they might endure, check how a device might operate once connected to the grid, calculate a technology’s economic potential, or collect data on a prototype during operation (often with a custom-made Modular Ocean Data Acquisition system, or MODAQ).

Each of the four PacWave-destined wave energy devices will receive specialized support. NREL experts will, for example, search for flaws lurking in testing plans, designs, instruments or physical components. These final checks will help ensure each device functions as intended during its PacWave trial.

Several companies will receive a custom MODAQ, a cousin of the one NREL researchers built for Columbia Power Technologies’ autonomous offshore energy device. Integral Consulting will receive guidance on how to use large marine energy data sets to model and validate its early-stage technology design. And Dehlsen Associates and Oscilla Power will work to hone their designs. NREL experts will help the two companies model how their ideas might operate in real waves.