A project to develop a standardised generator for wave energy devices has been given a £2 million boost.
Wave Energy Scotland has awarded the funding to Aquamarine Power, Bosch Rexroth and Carnegie Wave Energy, who are jointly developing a Wave Power Offtake Device (WavePOD).
The partners say that the device would remove a major hurdle to the development of the wave energy sector, and that the funding award is a major step forward for their project.
A tenth-scale WavePOD prototype has already been built and is undergoing a rigorous test programme at the Institute for Fluid Power Drives and Controls (IFAS) at RWTH Aachen University, Germany.
The £2 million of funding from Wave Energy Scotland will enable the team to complete testing of their scale prototype and deliver the design and specification for a full-scale prototype WavePOD.
Commenting on the new investment, said Aquamarine Power chief executive Officer Paddy O'Kane said: "The WavePOD project addresses head-on one of the major challenges in the wave energy sector - how to convert the motion of a wave machine into electricity, both reliably and cost effectively."
The WavePOD tenth-scale prototype comprises a drive train, cylinder frame and power take off and has been developed by Bosch Rexroth and Aquamarine Power with funding support from the Scottish Government's Marine Renewables Commercialisation Fund (MRCF), managed by the Carbon Trust.
Commenting on the project to date, O'Kane said: "We have already learned a tremendous amount through the design, build and commissioning of the tenth-scale WavePOD prototype. We have been generating electrical power since October and the drive train is using real-life hydrodynamic data from Oyster 800 to ensure the power take off is experiencing exactly the same loads it would encounter at sea."
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