News and Media
Oceanlinx discusses its technology with Australian Prime Minister
In a recent forum initiated by the the Hon. Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Oceanlinx’s CEO, Ali Baghaei, and founder, Dr Tom Denniss had the opportunity to meet with the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard and other Ministers. Those who spoke with Ali Baghaei were intensely interested to hear about the significant technological progress made by Oceanlinx in recent times, culminating in the dramatic reduction in its cost of electricity production that has the technology now cost-competitive with most other mature renewable energies. This is the first time Oceanlinx has put this information in the public domain.
Oceanlinx Breakthrough to Commercialization
Oceanlinx has developed and refined its technology over the past fourteen years to such a point that it is now commercially competitive with other forms of renewable energy, such as on-shore wind. Over the past eighteen months, major technological breakthroughs have led to a significant enhancement of the Oceanlinx greenWAVE and airWAVE products. This has resulted in a step change in the production cost of power from the technology.
Oceanlinx and AMC Awarded Australian Research Council Grant
The Australian Research Council (ARC), through its Industry Linkage Project Program, has awarded a team of researchers at Oceanlinx Limited and the Australian Maritime College (AMC) a grant of $342,000 over a three year period to undertake research into the performance and design optimisation of the Oceanlinx Oscillating Water Column (OWC) ocean wave energy converter. The researchers at AMC, which is part of the University of Tasmania in Launceston, include Professor Neil Bose, Gregor Macfarlane, Dr Laurie Goldsworthy and Dr Irene Penesis, who will work closely with Oceanlinx.
Oceanlinx Leads Global Wave Energy Sector
The latest review of the global wave energy industry, by independent US-based company Emerging Energy Research, has again confirmed Oceanlinx as a leader in the sector. Emerging Energy Research, a respected authority in the analysis of new energy technologies, has concluded that Oceanlinx is the most advanced OWC (oscillating water column) technology in the world. The latest analysis is further confirmation of the progress being made by Oceanlinx in the field of wave energy, with the company’s greenWAVE product now a commercial reality.
Detailed testing confirms the commercial viability of greenWAVE
Recent detailed testing of the latest Oceanlinx technology development has confirmed the exciting potential of the company’s greenWAVE unit. The testing indicated the technology, which has won acclaim from authorities such as the International Academy of Science and the United Nations, is already cost competitive with other more mature forms of renewable energy.
Oceanlinx Unveils Its New airWAVE Turbine
Oceanlinx has unveiled the latest version of its proprietary turbine – the airWAVE turbine. The airWAVE turbine is a design evolution, improving upon the original Denniss-Auld turbine. The airWAVE turbine has fewer moving parts and a conversion efficiency that is higher than both the Denniss-Auld and other comparable turbines. Like the Denniss-Auld, the airWAVE turbine is located well above the ocean, with no moving parts in the water. The airWAVE turbine further improves the overall wave-to-wire efficiency of the Oceanlinx greenWAVE and blueWAVE products.
Oceanlinx Unveils greenWAVE and blueWAVE
Oceanlinx has now finalized the full-scale development of both its shallow and deep water oscillating water column (OWC) designs. These latest versions of the Oceanlinx technology have been named greenWAVE and blueWAVE respectively. The greenWAVE unit is a single OWC chamber, fixed to the seabed in shallow water. In a good wave climate greenWAVE is rated at around 1 MW. The blueWAVE unit is a cluster of six OWC chambers, moored as a floating device in deeper water. In a good wave climate blueWAVE is rated at around 2.5 MW. Both the greenWAVE and blueWAVE devices utilize the same Oceanlinx airWAVE turbine, generator, and control systems. The greenWAVE and blueWAVE units are fully commercial versions of the Oceanlinx technology – the culmination of 13 years of technology development. Versions of both are expected to be rolled out in commercial operation over the next two years.
Oceanlinx Features in COP16 Publication
Oceanlinx has featured in Climate Action, the official publication of the COP16 Climate Change Meeting in Cancun, Mexico. Special mention was made of the numerous international accolades the company has received. The article also highlighted the wave energy project that Oceanlinx will be developing in Baja California, in collaboration with Mexico’s Comision Federal de Electricidad. The article appeared alongside the publication’s Foreword by Achim Steiner, the UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
DNV Verify blueWAVE Power Output
Certification authority Det Norske Veritas (DNV) has independently verified the power output of Oceanlinx’s blueWAVE OWC, according to the protocol OSS-312 Certification of Tidal and Wave Energy Converters. Based on the results from the one-third scale MK3PC deployed in early 2010 at Port Kembla, DNV concluded that, for a full-scale device that was tuned to the appropriate wave height and period, the Oceanlinx methodology for calculating the resulting power is accurate. This is a powerful third party validation of Oceanlinx’s rigorous quality control and of the blueWAVE capability to produce an electrical output of 2.5 MW.
Oceanlinx Develops proWAVE
Oceanlinx has developed a highly accurate new wave-to-wire model named proWAVE. This software package takes any wave climate as input and calculates the corresponding annual electrical output of an Oceanlinx wave energy converter. proWAVE solves a system of differential equations for water elevation inside the OWC, air pressure in the air chamber, and (for the floating version) the OWC’s structural elevation itself, in real time. Estimates are provided for instantaneous, average, or annual electric power production. The tool has already proved extremely useful to Oceanlinx for optimizing control strategies for its turbine and generator systems.