Page 54: of Marine Technology Magazine (January 2021)

Tech File

Innovative new products, technologies and concepts

Offshore Power: Paving the Way for True Autonomy

With the advent of autonomy on subsea vehicles, sensor packages, and a $3.2 million DOE-sponsored research and under the water, part of the value operating equipment. and development program.

proposition is the ability to stay at sea, “The ocean is a power desert,” said The SeaRAY AOPS is designed to be on station, to exponentially increase ef- Reenst Lesemann, CEO of C-Power. scalable to capacities from tens of watts ? ciencies. Have the ability to repower “Providing reliable power and real-time to tens of KW. The AOPS is designed at sea is central to this effort, as an in- data communications through an AOPS to survive the expected conditions of creasing number of companies work to is critical to unlock the full potential a 100-year storm off the Oregon coast solve the inherent technical and logistic of the marine economy. The SeaRAY and is easily transported worldwide in problems. delivers these capabilities and enables two standard ocean containers. It will

Columbia Power Technologies (C- a future of cheaper, safer, cleaner, more be deployed at WETS with a small,

Power) is commencing a six-month sea connected offshore operations.” lightly-crewed vessel. trial to test and validate its SeaRAY The sea trials will begin later this C-Power’s technology partners for autonomous offshore power system year at the Navy’s Wave Energy Test- the sea trials include EC-OG, RigNet, (AOPS), in partnership with a pair of ing Site (WETS), located off Marine EOM Offshore and Saab Group.

powerhouses: the U.S. Department of Corps Base Hawaii on the island of The SeaRAY’s sea? oor base unit will

Energy (DOE) and the U.S. Navy Oahu, Hawaii. be provided by EC-OG. EC-OG’s 100-

Initially conceived during a U.S. The SeaRAY AOPS at WETS is a kWh Halo lithium-ion battery energy

Department of Defense project, the moored con? guration consisting of storage system is designed for the harsh

SeaRAY AOPS is designed to provide a surface wave energy converter; a subsea environment and will be fully in-situ power, energy storage, and single, combined mooring, data, com- integrated with the AOPS, providing real-time data and communications munications and power cable; and a the payload interfaces for power, data support that is intended to advance sea? oor base unit that provides 100 and communications. the marine economy toward a future of kWh of energy storage for payload Following completion of the WETS autonomous, connected and resident operation. The SeaRAY, which will sea trials, C-Power expects to complete technologies. It is designed to support support several payloads during the commercial launch of the SeaRAY in unmanned offshore activities, including deployment, has been developed under 2021.

Image: Columbia Power Technologies 54 January/February 2021

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