OES Annual Report 2012 - Ocean Energy Systems

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A new R&D project on wave energy has been approved by the Basque Government under its ETORGAI
programme in 2012. The project is also led by “Iberdrola Ingeniería y Construcción” with the participation
of eight leading Basque companies: OCEANTEC Energias Marinas, Guascor Power, Ingeteam Power
Technology, Itsaskorda, JEMA Energy, Obeki Electric Machines, Vicinay Cadenas and Corporacion ZIGOR,
and the collaboration of TECNALIA as the main R&D subcontractor. The so called UHINDAR project, with
a budget of €8 million, aims at developing a floating wave energy converter and defining the electric
infrastructure and mooring systems for a complete wave energy farm. In December 2012, the first wave
tank trials of a small scale device have been performed.
Participation in Collaborative International Projects
Coordination of European Ocean Energy Research
Within the context of the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA), a Joint Research Programme (JP)
on ocean energy was launched in 2011, with the active participation of Spain through the involvement of
TECNALIA and CTC as an associated partner since 2012. The EERA Ocean Energy JP is based around
six key research themes: Resource, Devices and Technology, Deployment and Operations, Environmental
Impact, Socio-economic Impact and Research Infrastructure, Education and Training. Spain is participating
in all of the Research Themes and TECNALIA is leading the “Deployment and Operation” theme together
with the German centre Fraunhofer IWES.
MARINET - Marine Renewables Infrastructure Networt - is a €9 million EU-funded initiative to provide access
to test facilities in specialized marine renewable energy centres across Europe. MARINET supports testing of
concepts and devices in areas such as wave energy, tidal energy, offshore wind energy and environment. The
network consists of 42 testing facilities at 28 research centres in 12 countries. In Spain, EVE and TECNALIA
are key partners in this initiative: TECNALIA is offering its Electrical PTO lab testing facilities, and EVE is
offering its Mutriku OWC plant and BIMEP testing facilities. Further information: www.fp7-marinet.eu
The Spanish marine renewable energy sector has begun to benefit from MARINET:
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A collaborative project on corrosion was approved under the first MARINET call. The project deals with
the assessment and mitigation of marine corrosion in metallic components for marine energy devices and
is led by CTC with the participation of CSIC-CENIM and TECNALIA.
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CT-INNOVA has tested a pendulum wave energy device, developed within the OceanLider project, in the
wave tank of Aalborg University.
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EnerOcean has tested sensor encapsulations for tidal devices installing 12 prototypes at Fraunhofer
IWES, in Helgoland. EnerOcean has also supported the testing of the W2Power combined wind and wave
concept through model testing at the University of Edinburgh curved wave tank, in the framework of long
term collaboration with a Norwegian company that will continue with additional testing during 2013.
Participation in tidal energy projects
During the initial months of 2012 two projects related to tidal energy with a relevant participation of the
Spanish SME EnerOcean have been finished:
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Eurostars E!4449 Q-Sail focused on the qualification of a tidal energy device based on sails. EnerOcean
role was mainly in the first installations sites assessment and in the marinization and reliability aspects of the
design. EnerOcean was supported by University of Cadiz and University of Málaga during the three years
of this project.
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FP7 Capacities project Tidalsense (SME-2008-1 call, GA 232518), in which EnerOcean had a role as
development steering end user and provided the theoretical basis for a remote structural health monitoring
system for tidal energy devices.
EnerOcean is also participating in TidalsenseDemo (a FP7 project for SMEs funded in the 2011 call). It is
a €3 million demonstration project, in which the results of the previous research project Tidalsense will
be demonstrated in working tidal devices. EnerOcean is one of the leading companies of a 12 entities
consortium coordinated by InnotecUK, and that includes also the University of Cadiz. The project started in
February 2012. In November 2012, EnerOcean participated in the sensor installation in Nautricity prototype,
which will be installed at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC )in January 2013.
ANNUAL
REPORT 2012