The simulator will serve to test wave, offshore wind, and tidal power devices

Jun 6, 2014 11:29 GMT  ·  By

The University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom has recently announced that it is now the proud owner of a £9.5 million ($15.9 million / €11.7 million) massive water tank that is best described as a sea simulator.

The tank has a depth of 2 meters (6.56 feet) and measures about 25 meters (82 feet) from one side to the other, information shared with the public says. Courtesy of its impressive size, it can hold up to 2.4 million liters of water at a time.

According to Business Green, the tank is designed in such ways that it can recreate aquatic currents whose speed is one of about 14 knots in controlled conditions. Besides, it can birth waves whose height reaches 28 meters (almost 92 feet).

The water tank's official name is the FloWave Ocean Research Energy Facility, or FloWave, and its construction was made possible by funds provided by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Edinburgh University.

In case anyone was wondering, specialists did not go through the trouble of building this massive sea simulator looking to have somewhere to practice their surfing or swimming skills. On the contrary, the tank is expected to serve research purposes.

More precisely, the sea simulator will serve to test wave, offshore wind, and tidal power devices. The end goal is to collect accurate information concerning how these devices are bound to function when in real-world conditions.

Thus, it is said that, by testing these devices with the help of the FloWave Ocean Research Energy Facility instead of going through the trouble of installing them in open water, specialists will save precious time and also significant amounts of money.

Specifically, it is estimated that, should these devices be installed in open water, testing them and collecting information concerning their behavior would take weeks, maybe even months. By comparison, FloWave is expected to yield significant results in a matter of weeks, maybe even days.

“The opening of FloWave adds a string to the bow of the UK's suite of test facilities for marine energy and will contribute to maintaining the world-leading position of the UK in this sector,” explains Dee Num with Renewable UK.

Furthermore, “The facility will help improve reliability and reduce costs and the results could provide additional confidence to investors as we move towards the first commercial arrays. The scale of opportunity for wave and tidal is huge, and we hope this will encourage more investors to get their feet wet.”