Wave-Powered Radar-Based Ocean Sensing Systems

The demand for accurate, real-time, high- density ocean data to enable the Blue Economy, and/or scientific work and national security needs, is leading to many more ocean observation and monitoring systems being deployed worldwide, many of which can take advantage of increased power, and most of which require regular service visits. As these ocean observation systems are often placed in locations where a shore power connection is impractical or uneconomic, they are mostly reliant on batteries, resulting in high maintenance costs. This provides limits on available power, which in-turn often imposes limits on achievable sampling rates, lengths of deployment, and data resolution. Ocean wave energy, would be an ideal resource to harness in order to provide a near-continuous power-supply for these ocean observing platforms. While wave-powered sensor platforms are at the cusp of commercialization, what still seems to be a gap is the development of smaller systems that are easily deployable without the need for specialist or larger vessels. In current ocean platforms the battery capacity required for ~2yr service intervals even at 10-50W of load, requires significant mass, in the order of 10’s of tonnes, even with current battery chemistry. Using ocean wave energy will eliminate the need for such large and expensive energy storage, substantially reducing the size of the platforms and eliminating the need for large vessels to service and install them.. Oscilla Power Inc. (OPI) sees an opportunity to develop wave energy systems that are smaller and more efficient than current offerings at capturing energy from small period waves in low and moderately energetic environments. In this program, OPI will apply methodologies developed through other ongoing DOE- funded programs at OPI and Oregon State University (OSU), to develop an optimal solution with the highest possible power density in the 1-2 m size scale and use it to demonstrate a Radar-based ocean monitoring system. In this Phase 1 program, OPI will work with OSU, East Carolina University (ECU), and CODAR ocean systems (COS) to develop a small sized wave energy converter platform, based on the OPI Triton two body architecture, that will support an ocean observing radar package from CODAR. The system will be optimized for performance and efficiency across a full range of ocean conditions, although particular attention given to moderate wave energy climates below 10kW/m annually. NOAA’s ocean enterprise study identified more than 400 firms in the US generating more than $7 billion in revenue annually. In a broad sense, the benefits derived by developinga wave energy powered platform for any type of sensor, correspond directly to the benefits expected for a Blue Economy with a strong availability of significant, high-quality, high-density, real-time data for ocean monitoring, and decision making. These include preventing/reducing marine pollution, protecting marine and coastal ecosystems, limiting ocean acidification, dynamic maritime awareness monitoring/security, and mine sweeping.