PEWEC - PEndulum Wave Energy Converter

Blue energy is meant to be an important industry to support decarbonization and to reach the sustainable development goals of Agenda 2030. The MOREnergy Lab (http://www.morenergylab.polito.it/) and W4E (https://www.waveforenergy.com/) team have a keen interest in sustainability and are endowed with long experience in the blue energy field. In particular, through oceanographic, mechanical, and economic analyses, several innovative devices able to obtain energy from the wave and offshore wind have been successfully developed. The pilot version of one of these devices, called ISWEC (Inertial Sea Wave Energy Converter), was deployed for the first time off the North coast of Pantelleria in 2015 and has been continuously operating near Ravenna in the Adriatic Sea since 2019. Another device, called WEPA (Water & energy Point Absorber) is going to be installed near Porto Conte, in Sardinia. The achievement of these goals has been possible thanks to the team's twenty years of experience and to the collaboration with ENI and FINCANTIERI. The team also has an interest in all aspects of sustainability and can provide support in implementing decarbonization strategies. Indeed, the MOREnergy Lab has contributed to the drafting of the transition agenda for the island of Pantelleria and is currently providing a similar support to the islands of Carloforte and Favignana. Finally, the team believes that community involvement is crucial and plays a key role in the future roadmap for reducing environmental impact. Therefore, the MOREnergy Lab has begun an outreach campaign to spread awareness of environmental and energy issues in all their aspects.

The team is interested in every possible impact on the community, including visual impact. The proposed device can be positioned both above and below the sea surface. However, the island of Giglio could enjoy an increase in tourism, linked to the interest aroused by the presence of the device. For this reason, the team believes it is essential to have a discussion with the local community and all interested stakeholders in order to involve them in the choice of the best solution to create an innovative aesthetic design.

The team proposes to analyze the availability of renewable energy sources with modeling techniques and an on-field measurement instrument (weather station, floating or fixed mast, etc.). 

Based on these activities, it is important to elaborate preliminary techno-economic feasibility analysis that takes into consideration renewable energy systems plants and storage plants.

In parallel, it is important to involve in an open discussion all the main stakeholders, like local administration, protected areas administration, touristic operators, economic operators, citizens, and soo on, to have a comprehensive understanding of the context in which blue energy projects are planned.

The objective is to define a strategic plan for: 

- Defining future energy scenarios

- Design development and definition of the optimal Wave Energy Converters (WEC) device

- Evaluating risks and vulnerabilities

- Defining mitigation actions

 

In particular, the team has all the knowledge and skills necessary to go from preliminary design to installation, that is:

- Seabed characteristics evaluation to choose the most suitable mooring type

- Bathymetric trend analysis to identify the mostly flat area

- Intervisibility analysis to assess the possible visual impact of the device

- Wave and wind detailed assessment through numerical models able to reproduce the propagation of the waves and the wind.

- Wave and wind statistical analysis to identify the main project parameters

- Choice of the most appropriate WEC and then optimization of the chosen device, to adapt its shape and its operation to the wave characteristics

At the same time, the aspect related to the choice of material is taken into consideration, in particular materials with the following characteristics are preferred:

- Short supply chain

- Low environmental impact

- Possibility of disassembly, reuse, and recycling

- Resistance to aggressive materials

Pendulum Wave Energy Converter (PEWEC) has been identified to be appropriate to address the challenge. This WEC is, according to usual classifications, an offshore, floating, single-body, point-absorber, pendulum-based device. This device is composed of a sealed hull enclosing a pendulum and the power take-off (PTO) which it begins its motion when the waves hit the hull.