Over the decades: first of kind marine hydraulic engineering. Employee owned corporation.
1. CONCEPT SUMMARY
Bardex Corporation’s “Wave Energy Converter Using a Depth Adjustable Paravane” US 2018-0030953 and WIPO WO_2018023051_A4 is grid-scale and operates subsea, its supporting structural arrangement is fixed to the ocean floor.
The Depth Adjustable Paravane is not limited by energy source overload as wind turbines, nor does it stop power generation when the sun goes below the horizon. The ability of the Paravane to retract to design optimum energy levels means it can operate continuously, up to and during DNVGL defined 100 Year Wave Events. This is a Problem which is good to have. Battery storage at this scale is not yet feasible nor cost effective but must be accommodated, by two Opportunities:
- Desalination and pumped water storage, when engineered in concert with mega-watts of power generation capacity, may accommodate not-limited electric power generation.
2. INNOVATION AND IMPACT
Beyond the ability to always operate in design optimum conditions the Depth Adjustable Paravane and the active Stroke Telescope are neutral buoyant. This means it operates with twice the efficiency of any buoyant surface, or subsurface Wave Energy Converter (WEC) by reacting equally to wave heave up and wave heave down. Buoyant WECs harvest energy only with wave heave up. Buoyant WECs do not react to wave heave down and immediately their phase relation to wave energy phase is lost. Further complicating phase relation to wave energy is a buoyant WEC’s reaction to wave horizontal positive and negative surge forces.
- The Depth Adjustable Paravane is neutral buoyant, unaffected by wave surge and captured by wave heave so maintaining Phase relation to the wave’s vertical, gravity induced forces is easily maintained. The general assembly aligns with gravity’s force.
- This video shows the Operating Range Telescope fully extended and a 1100 m2 Paravane: offshore Oregon at 91 m ocean depth, 13.0 m x 18.0 sec. swell, with indicated 0.5 knot coastal current perpendicular to swell: https://youtu.be/t3B-H9-8ORc. Optimum energy harvest occurs at 50% wave height.
The Paravane, whether it is 1100 m2 or 100 m2 planar area, is dynamically stable requiring no control in and of itself. Phase Control, generated by real time data and proprietary software, is established by a large capacity ‘hydraulic transmission’ of 16 Bosch Rexroth - Hagglunds Radial Pumps that adjust to wave phase extracting optimum energy. Simultaneously 16 Hagglunds Radial Motors smooth pulsing wave energies to generators’ constant operating speeds. Bosch Rexroth has been and their SimulationX group is a current valuable collaborator. When required, Depth Course Control to deeper, or shallower to design optimum energy levels is ancillary to Phase Control. Optimum energy harvest occurs at ½ wave height.
This technology meets Breakthrough Energy[1] Venture’s Criteria 01: 1% reduction of 2050 global electrical power generation GHG emissions[2]. Lining all of the world’s wave energy resource coastlines with Depth Adjustable Paravanes (Bardex Electric Rays) does exactly that. Impossible, no; improbable, yes but disruptive: the Electric Ray exceeds by a factor of 2X the typical kW/meter of global wave energy for coastlines[3]. The reasons for this because of the innate mechanical attributes of the general arrangement as described and planar area.
[1] https://www.b-t.energy/ventures/
[2] eia.gov; iea.org; eea.europe; worlddata.info; climaticanalytics.org; & epa.org
[3] Assessing the Global Wave Energy Potential: OMAE2010-20473
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