SEA POWER

 

Laminaria will demonstrate the POTENTIAL WAVE ENERGY TO SUPPLY ENERGY TO PORTS AND HYDROGEN PRODUCTION FACILITIES. Laminaria has developed a versatile and robust wave energy converter. Its technology shows excellent performance in a very broad range of wave climates and it excels in survivability. The technology has been demonstrated at scale in the past at sea. In 2014/2015 Laminaria tested a fully functional device 1 km out of the coast of Oostende. Over the last 3 years it has developed and built the first full scale device to be monitored in Orkney. In the pilot Laminaria will deploy this device at the Billia Croo site and feed the produced energy into the Orkney electrical grid. A detailed analysis of its power production and potential for other sites will be performed. This project will also demonstrate the sustainability of the device over a longer period of time and offer the possibility to improve operations and maintenance strategies. Combining wave energy and hydrogen production in ports is a win-win situation. H2 installations can be supplied with a steady supply of locally produced renewable energy and wave energy developers have the potential to supply not only the electrical grid with energy, but also ships with “wave energy”.

Shipping today is mainly fuelled by fossil fuels. The DUAL Ports project has set out the goal to show the potential of Hydrogen for ports and shipping. Hydrogen is a very clean and compact carrier of energy and therefore offers great potential in making ports and shipping more sustainable. Setting up hydrogen fuelling stations and converting ships to run on hydrogen is an important part of making shipping and ports greener. Another major part of solving this issue is producing the energy in a sustainable way. Wave energy is an ideal source to supply the port hydrogen installations with energy. Ports are by definition close to the sea and a large quantity of ports have high wave energy resources nearby. Furthermore, wave energy is probably one of the most stable and predictable renewable energy resources which results in more efficient use of the hydrogen installations. The Laminaria led test and its performance results will therefore be a valuable source of information for those partners interested in such technology, that is still not mature and therefore requires further trials.

As for the new pilot SAIL CARGO TEST, also Laminaria aims to convert energy into H2 but from the energy generated by a wave device tested in Orkney. The experience gained by OIC and ITM in the HYDROGEN pilot will help address the technical challenges linked to such a novel measure