Israeli-Swedish wave energy company Eco Wave Power has installed a Spotter Buoy near the Barra do Douro breakwater in Portugal.
Installed following approval from the Port Authority of the Douro, the Spotter Buoy will collect wave data for Eco Wave Power's proposed wave energy project in the area.
"The installation of the Spotter Buoy was performed today by the Portuguese diving company - OCEANSUBTECH, which has several decades of experience in commercial diving for the purpose of projects installation, maintenance, and inspection of underwater structures, maritime and hydraulic works," Eco Wave Power said Thursday.
Eco Wave Power specializes in onshore/nearshore wave energy technology. It installs its systems in the onshore and nearshore environment and attaches them to marine structures, such as breakwaters.
Here is how its tech works, according to a description found on the company's website:
The floaters draw energy from incoming waves by converting the rising and falling motion of the waves into a clean energy generation process.
More precisely, the movement of the floaters compresses and decompresses hydraulic pistons which transmit bio-degradable hydraulic fluid into land located accumulators. In the accumulators, pressure is being built. This pressure rotates a hydraulic motor, which rotates the generator, and then the electricity is transferred into the grid, via an inverter.
The fluid, after decompression, flows back into the hydraulic fluid tank, where it is then re-used by the pistons, thus creating a closed circular system.
The system commences the production of electricity from wave heights of 0.5 meters.
The whole operation of the system is controlled and monitored by a smart automation system. Also, when the waves are too high for the system to handle the floaters automatically rise above the water level and stay in the upward position until the storm passes. Once the storm passes, the floaters return to the operation mode.