Óbidos, Portugal, November 1, 2010: Since 2007, Sea For Life has been developing and building an innovative device named WEGA (Wave Energy Gravitational Absorber): a technology capable of harnessing energy from waves by making the most of the laws of gravity.
The WEGA device is an articulated suspended body, semi-submerged, attached to a mount structure, which oscillates in an elliptical orbit with the passage of the waves. The movement of the body drives a hydraulic cylinder which pushes high pressure fluid through an accumulator and a hydraulic motor, driving the generator that produces energy. The articulated body attaches to the mount structure through a rotary head which allows it to adapt to the direction wave propagation.
WEGA distinguishes itself by the ability to produce energy without any mechanical motions in the water, a factor that is crucial to its survivability and durability in such adverse conditions such as those found in the marine environment.
This technology is built on the principles of scalability and modularity, ie, it ensures the possibility of adapting the size of each device and adding other standardized WEGA units.
Moreover, its structure allows the development of other activities related to the use of ocean resources such as offshore wind energy, aquaculture, water desalination, oceanographic studies, among others.
In addition, the WEGA technology can be used for applications in offshore or nearshore. The device size set according to water depth and wave regime in place.
The next step is to deploy a WEGA prototype in nearshore, during the next year. Therefore, Sea For Life has been undertaking contacts in order to establish relationships that foster the development of the exploitation of this source of marine renewable energy.
The installation and monitoring of the system in nearshore is part of the second phase of the WEGA Project which aims to demonstrate its technical feasibility. Exposing the device to different sea states, during an extended time window, will assure that fundamental features such as the device survivability or its power generation capacity are dominated.
Recently, Sea For Life has announced a cooperation agreement with INEGI (Institute for Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Management), a Private Nonprofit Association that works as an interface Institution between University and Industry, oriented to the activities of Research and Development, Innovation and Technology Transfer.
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