As the world’s stocks of non-renewable energy such as oil and coal dwindle, attention is rapidly turning to finding the best way to harness energy from our natural resources. Wind and solar power are being increasingly utilised, but it is the relentless push and pull of the sea that could prove to be the most efficient source of renewable energy.
The UK is well-positioned to exploit wave and tidal power and a number of companies are looking at ways to harness the power of the ocean, including Green Ocean Energy (GOE), based in Aberdeen, Scotland.
George Smith, managing director of GOE, said: “Scotland is a centre for research and development on this field because we know about the sea.”
Another company exploring the possibility of using the tides to create energy is Marine Current Turbines (MCT). Its SeaGen tidal energy convertor has been installed at Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland. Angela Robotham, engineering director at MCT, told CBR that sea power can be much more reliable than other renewable energy sources.
“The wind does blow a lot more offshore than it does on land, but if a high-pressure area settles over the UK the wind will stop blowing. With the tides you can predict to the minute what they are going to do,” she said.
Smith believes however that there is a place in the industry for all types of renewable energy generation. “We’re certainly not in competition with wind, tide or solar power or even other types of wave power. Different applications need different devices so there’s room for them all,” he said.
The device that Smith has created to harness the power of the sea is called The Ocean Treader. It has already been proven in tank testing and the company is now raising funds to enable it to build a full-size prototype, with the aim of testing it offshore before 2010.
The company used Autodesk Inventor to create a number of working digital prototypes rather than physical versions. This means that testing can be done on screen and any potential problems fixed before a physical version is constructed. This has saved the company time and enabled them to move the project forward. “This all would have been so much more difficult if it wasn’t for 3D CAD,” said Smith.
Smith first used Autodesk’s AutoCAD and then Inventor at his previous company, offshore engineering firm Nordeng. “I did contemplate having a look round to see what was on the market,” Smith said.
“In the end, there were several factors that made us stick with it. I was already very familiar with it and didn’t want to stop to learn something new – and also it is a very intuitive package so I knew that these two things together would enable me to be as innovative as my ideas allowed, without being held back by the technology.”
Using Autodesk’s design tools, the company can now export data directly to its Ansys FEA and MathCAD packages for analysis.
The Ocean Treader is still going through the model iterations stage. “Modelling in 3D has helped us to fit a lot into a complex space and to check there are no clashes. In this way, it gives us confidence in the design while it’s still on the screen – when changing something isn’t a big problem.”
This has proved vital to the company as they need to guarantee that the product itself will be reliable. Using the software to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the system, GOE can ensure that The Ocean Treader has very few single points of failure.
GOE is also hoping to use Autodesk software to help it secure financing for the project. “Using 3D digital design it is far easier to explain concepts and engineering drawings to a wider audience,” said Smith.
“This has been particularly important to us as it has helped us get funding. When you show a rendered image which can be spun round and interrogated everybody immediately grasps what we are trying to do – all by using the same working model.”
