Description
WaveNET devices are built from individual Squid generating units. The floating structure of the WaveNET is flexible in all directions and capable of capturing power from the ocean regardless of wave direction and array orientation. It’s also configurable to match site conditions and project power requirements.
The WaveNET Squid array project was deployed and tested in 2014 at the FloWave Ocean Energy Research facility in the circular wave pool in Edinburgh, Scotland. Albatern used the facility to test mooring designs, loadings and to asses the array’s behaviour in waves approaching from different directions at the same time.
The first development scale of WaveNET is Series-6, designed to operate in a minimum water depth of 20m and to generate electricity in waves with heights ranging from 0.3m to 6m. Albatern is currently testing Series-6 devices, the first commercial development scale of WaveNET on its road map to grid-scale power generation. WaveNET Series-6 arrays are being tested at a commercial scale on real operating sites in Scottish waters for smaller scale off-grid power requirements.
Location
From December 2013 the first three WaveNET Series-6 SQUID units were transported from Albatern’s Edinburgh base for testing at Kishorn in Wester Ross, before being deployed in 2014 off the Isle of Muck on the west coast of Scotland in May 2014 (in conjunction with Marine Harvest (Scotland) on their new salmon farm site). In 2014, the device was tested in Edinburgh, Scotland at the FloWave Ocean Energy Research facility. The Albatern Squid were also tested in open water in December 2014, in the North Sea.
Project Progress
The staged development process involves the successful development and commercialisation of the WaveNET technology at each of 3 stages of physical device size and operating capacity. The next development scale is Series-12, which will be double the size of Series-6 and will take individual SQUID generating unit capacity up from the 7.5kW of Series-6 to 75kW. Finally stage 3 will see the advent of the grid-scale Series-24 WaveNET arrays. Double the size again, the individual generating capacity of Series-24 devices will increase a further tenfold to 750kW, making 100MW arrays possible by 2024.