Tank testing of potential hybrid platforms (combined wind/wave structures).

Edinburgh Innovations Limited is the commercial subsidiary of the University of Edinburgh. This contract is lead by FloWave (part of the University), and for ease, we will refer to FloWave in this Contract Award Notice.

The requirements of this project are to better understand the physical interaction and performance of wave energy devices when mounted on a floating offshore wind type platform as peer reviewed data on the performance and feasibility of these hybrid structures is limited. WES wishes to undertake a programme of work to generate knowledge which is of relevance to knowledge which is of relevance to its own research interests, but also share relevant data with the wider ocean energy sector.

The results from the tank will be analysed by WES to determine the accuracy of the numerical model and which of the configurations looks the most promising. WES will investigate different configurations to determine which are likely to give the best power output for the smallest wave devices or the lowest quantity. From here it is possible to optimise the configuration and identify the ‘ideal’ hybrid platform.