ACEP Researchers Visit Wave Energy Simulator

ACEP’s Ben Loeffler and graduate student Mike Wise traveled to Oregon State University's O. H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory to participate in a wave energy converter workshop.

The workshop, led by Sandia National Lab, focused on the development and implementation of closed-loop control systems to increase energy generation from WECs.

The Sandia researchers demonstrated that an active control system that injects energy into the WEC (by using the generator as an actuator during parts of the oscillation cycle) can actually boost overall WEC energy output. To accomplish this, the researchers characterize both the WEC and the wave resource by perturbing the system and measuring its response. This characterization is used to build a control system model of the WEC's performance and tune the control parameters to maximize energy output.

Loeffler and Wise will apply these control strategies to ACEP's development of a prototype oscillating river current harvester. For more information on this or other wave energy research, contact Ben Loeffler at bhloeffler@alaska.edu.

 

Cameras show overhead and underwater views of the Sandia wave energy converter in Oregon State University's O. H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory. Photo by Ben Loeffler.