Jesse Roberts and Jason Heath of Sandia National Laboratories attended the 4th General Meeting of Optimal Design Tools for Ocean Energy Arrays Project (DTOcean) in Madrid, Spain, October 27–29, 2015. This project is developing a whole-system software design tool for determining levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for the design and implementation of first generation wave [...]
Carlos Michelen and Ryan Coe recently published results from research comparing various methods for producing short-term (i.e. sea-state specific) extreme response distributions. These methods are needed to statistically quantify the extreme response (e.g., tension in the mooring line of a wave energy converter) based on modeling results. (Note that these results might be obtained using [...]
The Reference Model Project, supported by the US Department of Energy, provides publically available technical and economic benchmarks for a variety of marine energy converters. This program supported the following publication: D. Bull, “An improved understanding of the natural resonances of moonpools contained within floating rigid-bodies: Theory and application to oscillating water column devices,” Ocean [...]
WEC-Sim Phase 1 testing at the Oregon State University Hinsdale Directional Wave Basin As part of the Wave Energy Converter SIMulator (WEC-Sim) project, Phase 1 of WEC-Sim experimental testing is underway at Oregon State University’s (OSU) Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory. WEC-Sim is an open source code for modeling the rigid-body dynamics and performance [...]
The University of Maine officially opened its combined wind and wave (W2) experimental facility on November 23, 2015. The University of Maine partnered with Diana Bull (Sandia), Amy Robertson (NREL), and Richard Kimball (Maine Maritime Academy) in the design and development of this facility. W2 not only will allow for testing of offshore structures in [...]
Sandia’s Marine Hydrokinetic (MHK) Advanced Materials program has a new publication on the antifouling efficacy of zwiterionic coatings. These polymeric coatings contain no metal and have both positive and negative chemical charges as part of their molecular structure. The coating was investigated in response to finding environmentally friendly materials for MHK devices by the Sandia-UNM [...]
The Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (NELHA) and Sandia have signed an MOU to implement electrical energy storage systems (ESSs) in renewable-energy projects at their Hawaii Ocean Science and Technology (HOST) Park. Aquion Energy battery module installed at NELHA. Hawaii’s innovative green economic development park plays a significant role in Hawaii’s growth [...]
Many theoretical studies show that additional energy can be captured through control of the power-conversion chains (PCCs) of resonant wave-energy converter (WEC) devices. The numerical models employed in these studies are, however, idealized to varying degrees. The objective of the Resilient Nonlinear Controls (RNLC) project is to validate the extent to which control strategies, given [...]
The highly anticipated Department of Energy (DOE) Small Business Vouchers (SBV) pilot opens for business today. Through the pilot, small businesses can apply to access the Department’s world-class facilities and an enterprise of more than 10,000 leading scientists and engineers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley, Oak Ridge, Pacific Northwest, and Sandia national laboratories. [...]
Delft3D is a state-of-the-art, open-source hydrodynamics software suite capable of modeling hydrodynamics, sediment transport, and water quality in rivers, lakes, estuaries, and coastal environments. Delft3D was developed by the Dutch company, Deltares. Because it is actively developed and maintained and because it is held in high regard by researchers and practitioners alike, Sandia is developing [...]
