WaveRoller Uses Swinging Door for Underwater Wave Energy

The simplest ideas are best at harnessing underwater wave energy. You don’t want lots of parts in the harsh marine environment (for machine parts) under the ocean. Here’s an idea from a diver from Finland who was almost hit in the head by a shipwreck door that inspired this invention: the WaveRoller.

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Now the EU is funding the diver; Rauno Koivusaari, with $4.4 million for his company AW-Energy to build the first full scale demo of his invention.

Each one at full size weighs 20 tons and produces 300 KW.

Each 20 ton WaveRoller “door” can be connected together in threes to make up a nearly 1 MW unit. Obviously you can make a modular farm of any size under the ocean of these three-packed units, so the output can be as much as you can build tons-worth of “doors”.

Koivusaari’s company AW-Energy has been perfecting the device for the last fifteen years. His half scale demos have gone well. This year we will get the results of a full scale demo built off the coast of Portugal, thanks to the EU funding.

AW-Energy’s WaveRoller uses the roiling currents under the sea to make energy from the repetitive surge motion at the sea floor in what Koivusaari calls the surge zone. The kinetic energy produced is collected by a piston pump. This energy can be converted to electricity by a closed hydraulic system in combination with a hydraulic motor/generator system.

It would be positioned on the sea-floor 21 feet to 75 feet below sea level so ships won’t interfere with it. Since it is out of sight; it is a Nimby-proof source of renewable energy.

Images: AW-Energy

Source: Blue Living Ideas

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