OWC History

Oscillating Water Column History

The first form of wave energy collectors were first envisaged over 200 years ago and the first design was patented in 1799. Since then there have been over 1000 patents for wave energy capture devices. Development was relatively slow until the oil crisis of 1973 when the increased price of oil sparked an interest in all forms of renewable energy.

During the 1970s several different designs were adopted such as:

Salter's Duck, a surface based energy conversion device.
Shore-Based Oscillating Water Column
Shore-Based Wave Amplifying Overtopping Device, a narrowing channel leads to a raised reservoir that feeds a low-head hydraulic turbine.
Although these devices showed promise, the oil prices once stabilised and renewables seemed less attractive. Then again in the 1990s the oil prices started to creep up and climate change was becoming an increasingly talked about subject. This lead to further investigation into the feasibility and design of wave energy collectors.

Present Day

Over the last few years there has been a noticeable surge in investment for the research and development of marine energy and specifically in the area of wave power. In the UK the Carbon Trust has been set up to help the UK move to a low carbon economy by helping business and the public sector reduce carbon emissions now and capture the commercial opportunities of low carbon technologies. Recently they commissioned a report to analyse the state of the art wave energy collectors. The .pdf report can be found here.

Currently very few oscillating water columns have made it to the prototype stage in the UK; the two most successful are:

Wavegen's ‘Limpet’
SperBouy
Limpet

Limpet is Wavegen's second attempt at constructing and testing a full size prototype and the installation work began in 1998 on the shores of Islay on the West Coast of Scotland. The works were completed and the installation commissioned in 2000.


Limpet shorebased OWC
SperBuoy

Sperbouy is being developed by Embley Energy and is effectively a floating buoy with an internal water column, however recent tests have shown that greater performance can be gained by allowing the whole buoy to heave instead of constraining its motion as per the standard oscillating water column techniques.

There have been numerous other attempts to build a full scale prototypes around the world with varying levels of success.

satu wajah

Cobalah…cobalah kau lihat…
Banyaknya bintang bergemerlapan…
Menghiasi malam yang dingin…
Dihembus angin sepoi-sepoi…

Terdengarkan nyanyian lagu…
Desiran ombak yang mengalun kan…
Lagu syahdu yang mengasyikkan…
Terlena aku di buainya…

Dalam terlena aku bermimpi…
Satu wajah umpama bidadari…
Kini mimpi jadi nyata…
Kau berdiri didepan mataku…
Terpaku aku kaku dibuyainya…
Berjanji tidak terus berjumpa…

Kali pertama aku melihat…
Paras wajah mu selembut sutera...
Jelingan matamu… dan senyum menawan…
Siapa terlihat pasti tertawan…

Gadis rupawan…
Engkau egauwan…
Apakah engkau sudah berteman…
Berilah jawapan…
Satu kepastian…
Buat ku ini… yang mengharapkan…
Agar, dua, hatikan menjadi satu…

Diantara kita ada bezanya…
Aku mengharap angkau memahami…
Apakah maksudnya…
Apa kau mengerti…
Disebalik mimpi…
Mimpi yang indah ini…

Walau apa pun jawapan diberi…
Aku terima dengan rela hati…
Kan ku abadikan dalam sanubari…
Menjadi kamus dairi mimpi ku…
Bintang, malam, berkelipan berterusan...
Mungkin ia tanda sinar harapan…

Sebuah lagu ku karangangi…
Buat penganti ketika sunyi…
Lagu syahdu yang mengasyikkan..
Terlena aku di buainya…