To accomplish competitive Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) below 40 cents per kilowatt-hour, Kangs DOE-funded job includes a team of multidisciplinary researchers looking for to actualize their trademarked Surface Riding Wave Energy Converter (SR-WEC) as a cost-competitive option for small- to intermediate-scale power supplies. Kang is also working with Global Perpetual Energy (GPE), a Texas sustainable energy company, to produce a utility-scale wave energy converter that will be able to produce megawatt-scale power. Developing from GPEs patented ocean sustainable energy platform, Kang is developing a maximum wave energy converter system that effectively extracts energy from flexible contortion resonance with waves over a big area. The system style was influenced by the truth that the wave energy covers the whole length of the wave– determining 10s to hundreds of meters.
Progress with federal assistance
Kangs very first job initially came from the U.S. Department of Energys (DOE) Wave Energy Prize Competition in 2015.
The competition revealed that a couple of conceptual drifting wave energy converters are promising, but their designs tend to result in expensive or uncompetitive capital expense (CapEx) and functional expenditure (OpEx).
A group of researchers from Texas A&M University, led by Dr. HeonYong Kang (center), is working on two jobs focusing on wave energy converters. Credit: Texas A&M Engineering
To attain competitive Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) below 40 cents per kilowatt-hour, Kangs DOE-funded project includes a group of multidisciplinary researchers seeking to actualize their patented Surface Riding Wave Energy Converter (SR-WEC) as a cost-competitive solution for little- to intermediate-scale power materials. SR-WECs function a distinct adaptive resonance for differing random waves, which produce high-capture width ratios, and a modular lightweight system that has actually the generator sealed. These residential or commercial properties substantially decrease CapEx, OpEx, and subsequently the competitive LCOE.
Since this project was initially presented to the department, Kangs group has actually established 2 optimum prototype styles of SR-WEC: a small-scale SR-WEC for self-recharging self-governing underwater automobiles and an intermediate-scale SR-WEC for kilowatt-scale power supplies for Powering the Blue Economy applications. Now, they are working on crafting scaled models. The models will initially be evaluated in a dry testbed and then in the 2D wave-current-wind basin in College Station.
Graduate students (left to right) Chaitanya Kesanapalli, Cody Marquardt and Aghamarshana Meduri are also part of Kangs research group. Credit: Courtesy of Dr. Kang
” Although we have been dealing with numerous obstacles throughout this pioneering research study, we get more excited and inspired as we find brand-new knowledge and acknowledge we are helping the energy transition,” said Kang.
Partnering with industry to commercialize ocean wave energy
Kang is likewise working with Global Perpetual Energy (GPE), a Texas renewable resource business, to create a utility-scale wave energy converter that will be able to produce megawatt-scale power. Evolving from GPEs patented ocean eco-friendly energy platform, Kang is developing an optimum wave energy converter system that successfully extracts energy from elastic contortion resonance with waves over a big location. The system design was influenced by the fact that the wave energy spans the whole length of the wave– determining tens to numerous meters. The objective of this GPE-sponsored job is to evaluate a prototype offshore in Galveston.
” What we are trying to do is find an option, both reliable and cost-competitive,” he stated. “By combining both, we can reach a competitive LCOE so that the public can access wave energy that is renewable, tidy, near to half of the U.S. population, and regularly offered throughout the day and night and in mild to extreme sea states.”
As part of the energy transition, the energy industry is looking towards the oceans for trusted, sustainable, and renewable resource sources. Engineers and researchers intend to create innovation that can provide cost-competitive ocean renewable power to support seaside communities, which make up half of the U.S. population.
Dr. HeonYong Kang, assistant teacher in the Department of Ocean Engineering at Texas A&M University, is stepping up to this difficulty with two separate jobs focusing on wave energy converters: one for small-scale and the other for utility-scale applications.