JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #52 - October 2009 - 52

USERS’ PLATFORM Successful partners Ocean wave energy converter Fred Olsen Ltd. is currently developing a new application for marine renewable energy: a wave energy converter designed to produce electricity from energy contained in ocean waves. 3B is a member of the development team, acting as reinforcement supplier and advisor. This team has won a JEC innovation award 2009 for this project. he device consists of a floating platform with oscillating buoys on the water surface. Fred Holsen Ltd. decided to use as many composite materials as possible not only for the structural parts, but also for the moving parts composing the energy-extracting and power take-off system because of their outstanding properties. T platform made from composites convert the wave energy to electricity. A 1:3 scale research platform, named "Buldra", has been operational since 2004 for testing purposes. A team of experts Fred Olsen Ltd. was originally set up in Oslo, Norway, to work in the shipbuilding business. They recently expanded into the offshore wind sector and, more recently, into ocean energy, a sector that requires a specific set of properties, including corrosion resistance (marine environment), resistance to cyclic load fatigue/ageing (blades, moving bodies, turbines, etc.), robustness, impact strength, resistance to survival load conditions (storms and possible climate changes), easy maintenance, and cost efficiency of final components, modules and systems. The natural properties of glass fibre materials from 3B Fibreglass make them capable of meeting such performance requirements. Fred Olsen has also cooperated with other expert partners. The Ghent University was in charge of the mechanical design of the composite floating-point absorbers. Due to the axisymmetric shape and cost considerations, filament winding was selected as the best available production process. Stiffness, strength and survivability were evaluated by finite element analysis. During the validation stage, fatigue tests and outdoor slamming tests were performed on large-scale absorber prototypes. Strain gauges, accelerometers, pressure sensors and high-speed digital imaging were used for the tests. The resulting data should demonstrate The team during the JEC Award 2009 ceremony The Wave Hub project The Wave Hub is a ground-breaking renewable-energy project aiming to create the UK's first offshore facility to demonstrate the operation of wave-energy generation devices. It involves a giant gridconnected socket placed on the sea bed off the coast of Cornwall which will be used to test wave energy devices on a scale never seen before. Situated near Hayle off the north coast of Cornwall, UK, the total Wave Hub project is now valued at £42 million. The project has the capacity to generate 20MW of green electricity with the potential to be scaled up to 50MW in the future. Sixteen companies from around the world expressed an interest in using the Wave Hub. The South West RDA has now interviewed a number of them and selected four to work on the first phase of the project. Fred Olsen Ltd. is one of the chosen few to be able to test its solutions. Its demonstrator should be launched some time in 2010. the conservatism of the existing design rules for slamming protection and the ability of a non-rigid, deformable composite structure to reduce peak pressure in slamming events. Spiromatic, a Belgian manufacturer of bulk handling systems for the bakery, sugar and confectionery industries, was asked to produce the floating-point absorbers. Spiromatic’s experience in manufacturing glass fibre reinforced polyester (GRP) outdoor silos and polyester tanks proved helpful for these new parts. Market potential Marine renewable energy should become an integral part of the renewable energy portfolio in the near future. The global potential can be broken down as follows: 8,000-80,000 TWh/yr for ocean wave energy and 800+ TWh/yr for tidal current energy (source: IEA 2006). The wave converter could therefore be used on a large scale in the future. More information: www.fredolsen.no www.3b-fibreglass.com www.UGent.be www.spiromatic.com www.wavehub.co.uk A new solution Fred Olsen Ltd. developed a unique multiple-point absorber system to extract energy from waves. A number of floating buoys attached to a light and stable floating jec composites magazine / No52 October 2009

http://www.fredolsen.no http://www.3b-fibreglass.com http://www.UGent.be http://www.spiromatic.com http://www.wavehub.co.uk

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #52 - October 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #52 - October 2009