A consortium led by Italian conglomerate Umbra Group has been granted €3.8m EU Horizon 2020 funds to develop a power take-off system (PTO) for wave devices.
The Imagine (Innovative Method for Affordable Generation IN ocean Energy) project will design and fabricate a 250kW prototype for performance and lifetime bench testing.
Project partners include the University of Edinburgh, Bureau Veritas, Norges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapelige Universitet of Norway, Cruz Atcheson Consulting Engineers and Italian test bench manufacturing outfit VGA.
The PTO concept integrates a recirculating ballscrew and a permanent magnet generator.
“This solution dramatically improves average efficiency, reliability and affordability compared to state-of-the-art PTOs,” said Umbra energy R&D and business development manager Luca Castellini.
The Imagine project is due to run until late 2020.
Image: University of Edinburgh’s FloWave centre (FloWave)
Italian wave catches imagination
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