The new concept harnessing wave power will be soon tested by developers in Portugal

Jan 13, 2012 09:07 GMT  ·  By

Wave power plays an important part in the sector of renewables. AW-Energy is one of the companies interesting in harnessing the 'blue energy' in a cost-efficient manner, to green up the energy industry and shift the global economy from a costly oil and coal dominance.

Its WaveRoller concept was recently welcomed in Portugal, where it will be the center element in a series of tests conducted over the next few months, Clean Technica informs.

It displays a plate anchored on the bottom of the sea, up to 25 meters underwater, at its base. The permanent back and forth movement of the tidal surge makes the plate move, while the kinetic energy created is collected and redirected to a piston pump, according to its developers.

The first prototype of this kind was introduced in 1999, marking a collaboration between Rauno Koivusaari and Fortum Research. After being developed, WaveRoller was tested in laboratories and several environments, both in Scotland and Portugal.

“A series of plates can be used to create an element farm and produce a larger power output. In this kind of element farm a series of piston pumps create a great deal of pressure which is fed into a collection system that then drives hydraulic motor/generator combination(s) to produce electricity,” reveal its manufacturers.

Accordingly to its size, every plate can generate up to 800 kw of 'blue' power. Harnessing wave power can be a challenging mission. This is why most of the devices used in this process are really heavy and hard to operate and control.

The revolutionary concept, backed by the European Commission, weighs no less than 280 tons. Money is an essential factor in this case. Since tests require a significant financial investment, a commercially available WaveRoller prototype is still far away from being introduced on the market.

However, another device is expected to green up the energy industry, harnessing both solar and wave power at the same time.