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PB40 Prototype PowerBuoy at Atlantic City, New Jersey The PB40 prototype PowerBuoy® has demonstrated over 24 months of successful ocean testing. This PowerBuoy was the first dual absorber 40 kiloWatt (kW) buoy developed by OPT with support from the U.S. Navy and the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities and is the basis for successive generations of PowerBuoys. The principles demonstrated with the PB40 prototype PowerBuoy were integrated into the designs of the two successive PB40 buoys for Hawaii, the PB40ES in Spain, and PB150 PowerBuoys. The PB40ES was deployed at OPT’s Santoña, Spain project with Iberdrola S.A. in September 2008. The PB150, currently in fabrication, will be ready for deployment at the European Marine Energy Center, Orkney Isles, Scotland at the end of 2009. The PB40 prototype has an overall length of 48 feet (14.6 meters) and a float diameter of 11.5 feet (3.5 meters). When deployed, the PowerBuoy is approximately 14 feet (4.25 meters) above the water. This PowerBuoy has all the design attributes of larger PowerBuoys allowing OPT to demonstrate PowerBuoy enabling technologies on the PB40 prototype PowerBuoy. The PB40 prototype PowerBuoy demonstrated PowerBuoy control system architecture, data exchange, algorithms to extract the maximum amount of wave energy from incoming waves, mooring concepts, and installation approaches. The PB40 has been a successful demonstration and test buoy for OPT’s technology. The PB40 propotype PowerBuoy deployment site is in the Atlantic Ocean, approximately five miles offshore from Tuckerton, New Jersey. This site is near the northeast corner of the Long-Term Ecosystem Observatory (LEO-15), which is part of the Coastal Ocean Observation Laboratory. Water depth at the site is about 60 ft. The LEO-15 site is ideally suited for the PB40 prototype PowerBuoy since it experiences a wide range of wave conditions, including the wind and wave effects of Atlantic storms and hurricanes.
This PB40 PowerBuoy has no transmission cable to shore. All the power generated by the PowerBuoy is dissipated onsite in a resistor bank. A shore station receives all data transmissions from the PowerBuoy and transmits it via the Internet to the Company’s Pennington, New Jersey headquarters. Remote control of the PB40 prototype PowerBuoy is achieved the same way. OPT gratefully acknowledges the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities and US Navy Office of Naval Research for their funding of the PB40 prototype PowerBuoy and its test program. This support has allowed OPT to develop wave energy enabling technologies and demonstrate them in a suitable ocean testing environment. |
