Page 24: of Marine Technology Magazine (April 2016)

Offshore (Photo Courtesy WITT Ltd.) (Photo Courtesy WITT Ltd.)

Witt in Plymouth University wave tank A prototype generating electricity. with world leading organizations. ity study for a wave energy project. Now, working as part of

Contained within a sealed unit, the Marine WITT uses a a consortium, the project looks to ascertain a harmonized cost 3D pendulum which drives the transmission system. This of energy for a range of device sizes in order to identify prior- converts all motion, in any combination of the six degrees of ity applications. The consortium is made up of Gibbs Gears, freedom, into a single unidirectional rotation of a ? ywheel, Schaef? er, DNV GL, Mojo Maritime, Offshore Renewable to produce electricity. The Marine WITT is the ? rst energy Energy Catapult (OREC) and three universities; Bristol, harvesting system that can capture this full spectrum, offering Plymouth and Southampton. 100% more energy compared to any other device. The power output will be dependent on several factors –

Martin Wickett, Chief Technology Of? cer and inventor of namely the amount of motional energy available as well as the the system, built the ? rst unit in his workshop almost a decade design of the containment and mooring con? guration in ma- ago. Since then WITT has received multiple awards including rine applications. University of Glasgow’s School of Mechan- the General Dynamics Gulfstream ‘Best Global Technology’ ical Engineering has produced energy graphs demonstrating at Ocean Exchange 2013 in Savannah, Georgia; ‘Pitch@Pal- the potential of different sized units suited to a wide range of ace’ in October 2015 and $57,000 in the Shell Springboard applications.

event in 2015. Through R&D support from companies such “We are extremely excited about the potential for this prod- as Ricardo and Schaef? er, the Marine WITT has caught the uct for several reasons,” said Beech. “Firstly, is its scalability, attention of those in the yachting community as a potential from a small unit for personal use to grid scale power genera- solution for achieving zero-emission vehicles. tion - the bigger the unit the more potential there is to harvest

By working with a precision engineering manufacturer, larger amounts of power. Collaborating with companies, who

Gibbs Gears, together with Schaef? er, the ? rst robust unit is in have the technical knowledge and the resources, is vital to development after completing various design iterations with bringing a new product to a renewable energy market that has input from experts such as Drive Systems Design. stalled somewhat in technological development.” “Working with Schaef? er and Gibbs Gears has sped up the The WITT collects energy from any naturally occurring development process signi? cantly. We will have robust units movement whether in the air, on the ocean surface, subsea to test in wave tanks at Plymouth in July. We have identi? ed and on land. This offers power in a much more diverse range the best manufacturing process which will allow us to mini- of areas including very harsh environments with less environ- mize costs whilst retaining a superior build quality,” said Peter mental and aesthetic impact. At present, a WITT 200 watt is

Beech, WITT Ltd. being developed to provide a power solution in a range of ap-

The power outputs generated from the wave tank testing will plications such as desalination and emergency power.

be used to evaluate the potential of WITT units to generate The system harvests power from surge & pitch, sway & roll, offshore grid level electrical power by connecting devices to- with no shock load, producing twice the capacity for wave gether. They also anticipate being able to meet these power power conversion than other devices on the market. WITT are requirements at a far more competitive cost compared to any working with the consortium in the wave energy project to other solution. design, build and test a sealed Marine WITT for wave tank

Last year, WITT won the Innovate UK Award for a feasibil- testing, with the aim of bringing it into manufacture for sale to

April 2016 24 MTR

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