Wave-to-wave Control of Wave Energy Converter Power-take-offs

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While Wave Energy Converters (WECs) are often cited as a valued entry in the portfolio of renewable energy technologies, very rarely is any precision provided in the description of the Canadian wave energy opportunity. Ambiguity in the evaluation of Canada's wave resource stems from a void of comprehensive resource data and a lack of accessible performance data defining how converters harness that resource. At UVic's Institute for Integrated Energy Systems, the West Coast Wave Initiative (WCWI) is dramatically improving the understanding of the raw resource and how one class of WEC, referred to as point absorbers, can be used at a remote off-grid community on Vancouver Island. However, projects such as the WCWI rely on converter performance data collected through commercial WEC demonstrations of first-of-a-kind devices. That data is specific to design and control innovations that represent acceptable risks at the demonstration stage, and consequently it does not provide a broad understanding of how conversion technology performs, how that performance can change and through what advances, and what the potential is for later stage devices to serve community, regional or national scale electricity demands.