Page 40: of Marine Technology Magazine (May 2019)

SurfWEC & the quest for ef cient wave-generated power enewable energy production is of? cially ‘hot’, as a

Wave-generated power could be number of engineering advances and government subsidies have conspired to help deploy, test, and considered the Rodney Danger-

Rprove in real-world conditions the viability of vari- ous systems. While solar and wind power have jumped out ? eld of offshore renewable energy as early leaders, there is a renewed push to turn ocean wave sources; it gets no respect. There power into a viable, renewable source of power and stored energy. A new entrant is SurfWEC LLC, which is aiming to have been a number of high-pro? le, become the ‘go to’ in the wave energy category, both as a stand-alone system and as added power source, energy stor- expensive failures that have con- age, and wave damping units co-located with existing or fu- ture offshore wind farms.

spired to give the sector a poor

Meet the “Old New” Company reputation despite a number

A driving force behind the new perfor-

SurfWEC @ a Glance mance projections for Wave Energy Con- of engineering advances. verters (WECs) is Martin & Ottaway, a New

The Company

A new entrant is SurfWEC

Jersey-based marine engineering ? rm that

SurfWEC LLC has been in continuous operation since 1875 offering a patented “surf- which incubated SurfWEC LLC in Decem-

The Technology ber of 2018. SurfWEC, with university and

Wave Energy Harnessing Device making” Wave Energy industry partners – Stevens Institute of Tech- nology, ABB, Airline Hydraulics, Bosch-

The Start of Design

Converter which has been

Rexroth, Deeptek, HYDAC, ISCO Pipe, Wire 2007

Co./Lankhorst Ropes, and others – is working in development since 2007. to develop WECs using patented features that

The Patent Issued are expected to increase energy recovery rates

Its developers promise it 2012 by an order of magnitude as stand-alone units will stand out from the ? eld or integrated with legacy WEC systems.

The Patent Owner

The SurfWEC system is also designed to

Stevens Institute of Technology and perform where others avoid wave damage associated with hurri- canes, equipment located in surf zones, and

The Exclusive License Holder have failed. How? The Surf- stationary mooring systems offshore via tech-

SurfWEC LLC nology that conquers the challenge of highly

WEC design improves upon variable wave sizes. To put it simply, it does

The Website this with a patented variable-depth shoaling www.surfwec.com a generation of ‘lessons feature, invented by Michael Raftery, Surf-

WEC Chief Technology Of? cer (CTO) while learned,’ and more impor- performing research at Stevens Institute of Technology from tantly it makes its own surf.

2004 to 2012. The technology essentially allows offshore waves to be converted to surging surf waves, allowing much more effective wave energy recovery.

By Greg Trauthwein

Meeting with Raftery in Martin & Ottaway’s Tinton Falls,

May 2019 40

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