This award will allow a continuation of work previously completed by Oscilla Power that emphasized the advantages of co-locating energy storage with wave energy systems. Large-scale energy storage has long been touted as crucial in increasing the effectiveness of variable renewables, such as wind or solar energy. As part of this new project, Oscilla will further develop its energy storage concept and investigate the effect of interconnecting a 50MW farm of its Triton wave energy devices into a power grid. The work is expected to indicate that large farms of wave energy devices can produce more reliable power than existing wind or solar plants.
Tim Mundon, VP Engineering for Oscilla, says, "Although ocean waves have very high short-term variability, they are much more consistent over longer periods of time, which is a key advantage of wave energy. Understanding how very large farms of devices interact may help us identify further optimizations that will drive down the costs of utility-scale wave energy."
Oscilla Power will be working with Brayton Energy to develop the energy storage component of this new work. Brayton has previously developed an underwater compressed air energy storage system with the US DoE and Navy. Oscilla Power will also be working with experts from Oregon State University and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to help understand the array and interconnection aspects for a 50MW farm of wave energy devices.
This work is expected to start shortly and will continue over the next two years. The award is a Phase II SBIR (Small Business Innovation & Research) award, funded through the Water Power Technology Office (WPTO), part of the Energy Efficiency (EERE) and Renewable Energy arm of the US Department of Energy (DOE).
About Oscilla Power Inc.: Oscilla Power Inc. is developing advanced technology to extract energy from ocean waves. They are currently completing the construction of the Triton-C prototype, a 100kW wave energy converter that is expected to be tested in Hawaii next year.
