Expected Impacts of the WETS Deployment of the OE35 Oscillating Water Column

Kelly, J.; Lewis, T.; McCarthy, J. (2021). Expected Impacts of the WETS Deployment of the OE35 Oscillating Water Column. Paper presented at 14th European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference (EWTEC 2021), Plymouth, UK.

Abstract

To bring the wave energy sector to full commercialisation, the laboratory and small-scale testing, TRL 3 – TRL 6, must progress to full scale, long-term testing, TRL 7 – TRL9. The cost of testing at full-scale grows exponentially in early stages of scale-up. The high costs make gathering as much knowledge as possible from each test vital. The TRL 6 deployment of the Ocean Energy OE35 buoy, with the Siemens HydroAir Turbine at the US Navy Wave Energy Test Site (WETS) in Kāne‘ohe Bay, O’ahu, Hawai’i is the largest floating oscillating water columns (OWC) deployment to date. The buoy has been fabricated and delivered to O’ahu for deployment, but final deployment, like so many aspects of life, has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper aims detail the some of the expected important outcomes from the 12-month deployment at WETS, and the learning from the project so far.