Press Release: CorPower expands in Scotland – preparing for Orkney deployment
Following a rigorous on-land test program with the latest generation Wave Energy Converters in Stockholm, CorPower and project partners are preparing for the upcoming installation at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney.
Supporting the growing activities in Scotland, the subsidiary CorPower Ocean Ltd has been established with offices in Kirkwall, Orkney.
The company is happy to announce two new key members of our Operations team, Robert Argo and Mairi Dorward. Robert Argo has taken the role as Senior Operations Manager in CorPower Ocean Ltd, bringing a wealth of experience from operating and maintaining marine energy devices in harsh environments. In his previous role Robert was responsible for installing and operating floating tidal energy converters. Mairi Dorward, has joined as a Senior Operations Engineer, bringing experience from project management, environmental impact assessment and risk based methodology from the oil and gas sector. Through her work at CorPower, Mairi is also completing an industrial EngD program IDCORE, focused on reliability and operational modelling for wave energy technology.
Patrik Möller, CEO at CorPower:
“We are delighted to have our Scottish operations up and running, and to have attracted some top talent to our operations team. We are already seeing the immense value of working in the Scottish ocean energy ecosystem, with significant lessons learned from previous wave projects. We are looking forward to working closely with Orkney supply chain that brings unique operational experience to the project, having deployed more ocean energy devices than anywhere else in the world.”
Tim Hurst, Managing Director, Wave Energy Scotland:
“To allow us to use the very best available technology, the WES programme is open to technology developers from across Europe. Scotland is THE best place to develop and demonstrate wave technology where the wave energy resources exist. This project is a new collaboration between a Swedish Power Take-Off technology provider and the Orkney supply chain to deliver a real sea demonstration of the device.”
Background
CorPower follows a structured five-stage verification process established as best practices for ocean energy technology by ETIP Ocean and Wave Energy Scotland. It involves step-wise validation of survivability, performance, reliability and economics starting with small scale prototypes in Stage 1, continued by sub-system testing and then fully integrated WECs in increasing scales up to array demonstration in Stage 5. The current Stage 3 program follows the prior testing of multiple prototypes in smaller scales performed in Portugal, France and Sweden since 2013
CorPower Ocean is currently taking a large scale WEC through structured verification by dry testing it in a rig in Stockholm, followed by ocean deployment at the European Marine Energy Centre’s (EMEC’s) Scapa Flow test site in Orkney (Scotland). Stage 3 demonstration is supported by best practice from EMEC in Orkney, alongside the experience from offshore power generation company Iberdrola Engineering and EDP, the University of Edinburgh and WavEC Offshore Renewables’ expertise in cost and performance modelling.
€6.5 million has been invested in the Stage 3 program by InnoEnergy, the Swedish Energy Agency and Wave Energy Scotland, with another €4 million contributed by the European Commission’s H2020 WaveBoost project.
About CorPower Ocean
CorPower Ocean brings a new class of high efficiency Wave Energy Converter, enabling robust and cost- effective harvesting of electricity from ocean waves.
The design principle is inspired by the pumping principles of the human heart and offers five times more energy per ton of device compared to previously known technology. This allows a large amount of energy to be harvested using a small low-cost device. The system has excellent survivability in storms, thanks to being inherently transparent to incoming wave energy. The step-change increase in structural efficiency is enabled by a novel system design and advanced control technology – providing a path for wave energy to overtake modern wind turbines in structural efficiency and long term competitiveness.
