Co-Development of Oscillating Water Column (OWC) and Offshore Power Station

In response to the Water Power Technologies Office “Co-Development of Marine Energy Technologies at Smaller Scales.” We propose a co-development of an “Oscillating Water Column” and the “Offshore Power Station”. This proposal is to design a small scale Oscillating Water Column to provide the “offshore energy” as described as one of the activities needed in the “blue economy”. We intend to provide a wireless charging station for the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle or Unmanned Underwater Vehicle. Present Oscillating Water Column is usually very large (in power rating and dimension) and heavy, built out of steel, this will affect the capital cost ($6650/kilowatts) in 2020, and the Levelized cost of energy (0.47 per kilowatt-hour in 2020). Based on the historical data the “Estimated Percent Contribution to Levelized cost of energy for Early Commercial-Scale of wave energy converting Devices” consists of the capital cost (~49%) and operations and maintenance (27%), and the grid connection (10%). These cost components are challenges to move the technology forward into more sustainable development. Our technical approaches to this project are a) to lower the capital cost of the system by building small scale Oscillating Water Column at a very lightweight, and b) to lower the operations and maintenance and c) to minimize the down-time (loss of production time) during installation, maintenance, and repair. Our proposed Oscillating Water Column made of a low-cost filament wound fiberglass cylinder anchored to the ocean floor. The air turbine drives a highspeed permanent magnet with the flux-focusing alternating current generator. The fiber-glass floater is designed to carry the weight of the main chamber, generator, and associated controls. The alternating current generator is controlled to maximize power production. Machine learning will be included in maximizing energy, health monitoring, and scheduled maintenance.