PowerBuoy

PowerBuoy is a power station for generating electrical energy from wave power. It is a point absorber or buoy, currently in-use or in-planning at 9 locations around the world, but primarily within Australia and the United States.[1]

The PowerBuoy generates power using a hydroelectric turbine. PowerBuoys can be connected to the electrical grid by power transmission cables or can operate autonomously in a deep water environment. PowerBuoys are manufactured by Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) in Pennington, New Jersey.

The rising and falling of the waves offshore causes the buoy to move freely up and down. The resultant mechanical stroking drives an electrical generator. The generated wave power is transmitted ashore via an underwater power cable.

An OPT power station benefits from a deep water emplacement and has a very low "surface profile", meaning it is barely visible from shore. They also have a small horizontal footprint and have been designed to be scalable. As such, they are ideal for wave farms.

OPT power stations have been designed for extreme wave conditions. Sensors on the PowerBuoy continuously monitor the performance of the various subsystems and surrounding ocean environment. Data is transmitted to shore in real time. In the event of very large oncoming waves, the system automatically locks up and ceases power production. When the wave heights return to normal, the system unlocks and recommences energy conversion and transmission of the electrical power ashore.

Development
  • Autonomous Power Systems [2]
  • Utility Scale Power Systems [3]
  • Mark 3 PowerBuoy [4]
  • Mark 4 PowerBuoy - The PowerTower [5]
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gollark: The English-y GCSEs are very annoying. I did better in Ancient Greek and Latin than English on the mock things (literature/language were just done as one exam for some reason).
gollark: Anyway, I did decently on my mock exam stuff, so if they use those as my actual grades I should be okay.
gollark: I mean, it's an... underground railway network, if a small one.
gollark: We don't really get those here.

References
  1. New York Times September 4, 2012
  2. "Autonomous Power Systems". Archived from the original on 2015-01-02. Retrieved 2012-11-14.
  3. "Utility Scale Power System". Archived from the original on 2013-01-30. Retrieved 2012-11-14.
  4. "866kw per unit peak rated Power System". Archived from the original on 2013-09-26. Retrieved 2013-04-11.
  5. "2.4mw per unit peak rated Power System - The PowerTower". Archived from the original on 2014-08-19. Retrieved 2013-04-11.
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