Pelamis comes to Plymouth for wave tank testing

Leading marine renewable energy developer Pelamis has completed a two-week testing programme of its patented wave energy converter in Plymouth University’s COAST laboratory. The Edinburgh-based company, with their research collaborator University College Cork, conducted performance experiments on a scale model of a Pelamis wave energy converter (WEC) under extreme wave loadings. The testing was part of the European FP7 project GeoWAVE, (Geotechnical design solutions for offshore renewable wave energy industry), which is working to developing a new generation mooring system for wave energy converters at reduced costs of the materials, installation and maintenance. Dr Chris Retzler, Principal Scientist at Pelamis, said: “We had a good two weeks testing and successfully completed everything we hoped to do. I was impressed not just by the quality of the wave tank and its instrumentation (such as the wave-gauging and the motion tracking of our model) but also by its usability. “The movable floor in particular substantially improved turnaround: we were able to interrupt tests, make changes to the model and be running waves again in a satisfyingly short time. We obtained good results fast – aided by solid technical support from the wave tank staff.