Although we use wind and sun among renewable energies seriously, the work of generating electricity from wave energy has always failed so far. Nowadays, CorPower, one of dozens of companies, seems to have solved this problem.
It will be protected from sea conditions by a large pontoon made of round composite material. The production facility was designed as a mobile factory. Thus, the factory established at the production location can be dismantled, moved and re-established. Engineers will be able to go into maintenance, insulate themselves and be protected from sea conditions. The connection system to the seabed can be provided very quickly with a pole. Thanks to this direct vibration, it can be embedded into the base in just 10 minutes. It is also very easy to tie it to the seabed anchor and remove it. This makes it easier to tow for detailed maintenance.
Thanks to the transmission system inside the machine, the pontoon can produce more energy by increasing the wavelength by 3 times. When dozens of machines come together, they can form a production field and blocks of 10-20 MW become possible. With a power amount of 15 MW/Km^2 in the same area, 3 to 5 times more energy can be produced than wind energy.
The company’s latest CorPower C4 wave power plant has a power of 300 kW and a capacity factor of 40-60%. Capacity factor means the rate at which it will produce energy since it cannot operate at full capacity for a year. This figure is around 10-25% in solar and 25% in wind. As can be seen, the wave power plant has a much higher capacity. In addition, it is capable of producing at times when the wave, wind and sun are low.
The European Union, on the other hand, has already laid a high voltage line in the open sea (20-30 km) and reserved that area for energy, and plans to use wave power plants along with floating wind turbines. In this way, it wants to receive a continuous energy flow from the line. As seen in the picture above, the wave energy is more stable and regular.
Thanks to the support of the EU and Portugal, a CorPower C4 within the scope of HiWave-5 has now been installed off the coast of Portugal and connected to the grid. From now on, the company will start working on the next version with the tests and optimizations it will carry out, and then 3 pilot sizes from the C5 version will be tested.
The only obstacle left for the company is to further reduce costs. By 2030, it hopes to reduce MWH production to €30, that is, to the current solar PV level installed for the grid.
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