WATCH: CorPower completes ‘Ironman’ testing

The first commercial-scale wave energy converter by CorPower Ocean has completed a year’s dry testing with a final ‘Ironman’ endurance exercise in preparation for final assembly in Portugal and deployment.

The Sweden-headquartered firm, with offices in Portugal, Norway and Scotland, has been testing its technology on a purpose-built test rig in Stockholm, which is now a full test facility for wave energy converters.

This C4 device was tested with simulated wave loading in conditions akin to several ocean settings, with the final Ironman scenario replicating full storm conditions.

It was heavily instrumented and engineers used 500 sensors to collect more than one terrabyte of data to monitor changes in the characteristics of mechanical, electrical and pneumatic systems during sustained operation. 

“The function and performance of the novel PTO (Power Take Off) technology has been well characterised, with the data confirming conversion efficiency on target, with power export up to 700kW,” the firm says.

“A series of significant milestones have been recorded in recent weeks, with the completion of the composite hull and on-land testing of the PTO,” said Jean-Michel Chauvet, Ocean Director of Integration & Test. “Site preparation work is well advanced  for the deployment of our flagship HiWave-5 demonstration project. This will lay the foundations for one of the world’s first grid-connected wave energy arrays, in turn helping demonstrate wave energy’s potential to bring greater stability to the global energy system and provide a future powered entirely by renewables.”

For the last decade CorPower Ocean has been steadily undergoing a five-stage product development and verification process, which initially started with small scale tests in Portugal and France.

It later progressed to a half-scale C3 WEC prototype, which also underwent dry testing prior to sea trials in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, leading up to the design, build and testing of the first commercial scale C4 system in 2022.