On Advanced Versions of Wave-Power Plants

Abstract

The modern electric-power industry, which is based on thermal-power plants, is causing difficult environmental problems on a planetary scale. Leading industrialized countries are developing power industry based on renewable energy sources (RESs) using the energy of the Sun, rivers, oceans, wind, and geothermal energy of the Earth. The energy density of sea waves is much higher than that of solar radiation and wind. However, solar- and wind-power plants have gained more widespread use than have wave ones. The reason for this is the absence of a cheap and effective way of converting the sea-wave energy into electricity. Existing wave-power plants are inferior to other types of power plants using renewable sources of energy in mass and size and, therefore, in the cost of electricity. The paper considers a layout allowing for a significant reduction in the mass and dimensions of a wave-power plant. The wave-power plant is housed in the hull of a moored twin-hull ship. By means of cables and a vertical pendulum, the energy of waves is converted first into mechanical shaft-rotation energy and then into the electrical energy. The use of a tackle pulley allows increasing the generator rotor speed to hundreds of rpm and reducing the pendulum mass. All the electrical equipment of the power plant is arranged inside the twin-hull ship. Results of use of the wave-power-plant model in a wave-simulator tank are presented.