Unlimited Wave Energy: This Buoy is the Future — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00waves in our ocean are an incredible
2. 0:02source of power that could in theory
3. 0:05meet the whole of global electricity
4. 0:07demand however harnessing wave power has
5. 0:10been a centuries long Quest littered
6. 0:13with failure but that could all be set
7. 0:16to change a floating wave energy
8. 0:18converter called the C4 by Sweden's Core
9. 0:21Power has taken inspiration from the
10. 0:23human heart and combined it with
11. 0:25world-class engineering to deliver some
12. 0:28incredible results in this video we'll
13. 0:31look at the design that allows the C4 to
14. 0:34capture a reported five times more
15. 0:36energy per ton than other wave systems
16. 0:40however before they started optimizing
17. 0:42the energy from their device there was a
18. 0:44bigger challenge they had to solve and
19. 0:47that was making sure the whole thing
20. 0:49didn't get ripped apart in the
21. 0:52ocean when I studied wave energy at
22. 0:54University it was like a postmortem of
23. 0:57failed systems since 179 9 ideas and
24. 1:01patents have come thick and fast these
25. 1:03ideas have yielded devices with
26. 1:05fantastic names like the Salter duck
27. 1:08Mighty whale and the oyster there are
28. 1:11now more than 1,500 wave energy patents
29. 1:14out there but Commercial Success has
30. 1:17been elusive this is largely because
31. 1:19wave power has historically had two very
32. 1:22expensive problems efficiency and
33. 1:26survivability so to really test the
34. 1:28survivability of their vention The Core
35. 1:31Power Team chose to do their testing off
36. 1:33the coast of North Portugal where their
37. 1:36system was subject to four powerful
38. 1:39Atlantic storms and amazingly it
39. 1:41survived all of them without a problem
40. 1:44one of their secrets to this incredible
41. 1:46survivability is that Core Power uses
42. 1:49composite boys that are lightweight and
43. 1:52tough in a type of wave of energy
44. 1:53converter known as a point absorber
45. 1:56Tethered to the seabed they oscillate
46. 1:58with the waves mostly up and down
47. 2:01capturing wave energy the C4 harnesses
48. 2:04the linear up and down movement and
49. 2:06turns it into rotation creating
50. 2:08electricity via a Cascade of small gears
51. 2:11powering an onboard generator even with
52. 2:14safety constraints on velocity and
53. 2:16stroke the six-month test in Portugal
54. 2:19achieved a peak power of 600 KW for
55. 2:23comparison wind turbines with equal
56. 2:25power ratings are twice as tall with
57. 2:28rotors four times wider and much more
58. 2:31complex to deploy however just using
59. 2:34tough boys is not the ingenious
60. 2:36invention that sets Core Power apart
61. 2:39instead there are a few other
62. 2:41breakthroughs that help address the
63. 2:43system efficiency and survivability in
64. 2:46much more interesting ways one of these
65. 2:48is called the wavespring system that
66. 2:50builds on an older breakthrough a
67. 2:53hydraulic pump invented by a
68. 2:56cardiologist the cardiac cycle takes
69. 2:59less than a second but as cardiologist
70. 3:01Dr Stig lundback discovered it's
71. 3:04mind-blowingly efficient this is in part
72. 3:08because the heart only uses energy when
73. 3:11it contracts and pushes blood out into
74. 3:14the body to fill back up all it needs to
75. 3:17do is relax and let pressure in the rest
76. 3:20of the body push blood back into it this
77. 3:24means that with one contraction blood
78. 3:27flows in two directions this idea of
79. 3:30using builtup pressure to get blood
80. 3:32flowing in two directions from one
81. 3:35action is what got Dr Stig lback
82. 3:38thinking about wave energy because just
83. 3:41like the heart waves only push in One
84. 3:45Direction in 1984 Dr lundback patented
85. 3:49the dynamic adaptive piston pump like
86. 3:52the heart it's a single pump with a dual
87. 3:55action decades later he co-founded Core
88. 3:58Power and put this mechanism to good use
89. 4:02however unlike the heart The Core Power
90. 4:04C4 uses pneumatic systems meaning that
91. 4:07they work with Air instead of fluid as
92. 4:09the boy rises in a wave the central
93. 4:12pneumatic cylinder and springs store up
94. 4:15the pressure then this stored pressure
95. 4:18can provide a returning Force as the boy
96. 4:21goes back down where the central
97. 4:23cylinder pulls back on the rods that are
98. 4:25secured to the ocean floor with an
99. 4:28anchor therefore the C4 boy can capture
100. 4:31the maximum wave energy throughout the
101. 4:34whole cycle instead of just the upstroke
102. 4:38this pneumatic system also helps with
103. 4:40survivability this is because when a
104. 4:42storm comes the pressure can be
105. 4:44increased inside to prevent the boy
106. 4:47going all the way up and down with the
107. 4:49harsh ocean waves this state is known as
108. 4:52the detuned storm protection State and
109. 4:55can be compared to a wind turbine
110. 4:57pitching its blades during high winds
111. 4:59this ability to Shield itself from large
112. 5:02waves is how the C4 survived Atlantic
113. 5:05storms with record-breaking waves of
114. 5:0818.5
115. 5:09M however when the waves are good the C4
116. 5:13boy can instead be continuously tuned to
117. 5:16work with the waves this tuning is done
118. 5:19using the onboard generator alongside
119. 5:22the wider wavespring system the
120. 5:25wavespring was invented by Dr hals when
121. 5:28designing the system he had to do lots
122. 5:30of 3D modeling and testing which is why
123. 5:32before looking into the wavespring
124. 5:34further I need to tell you about today's
125. 5:36sponsor onshape onshape is a
126. 5:39professional grade computer aided design
127. 5:40software that is completely free for all
128. 5:43makers and hobbyists forever it's even
129. 5:46free for engineers and companies for 6
130. 5:48months so they can properly try it out
131. 5:51it's amazing that we live in a world
132. 5:52where you can log onto a website without
133. 5:54downloading anything and within 2
134. 5:56minutes be making anything your mind can
135. 5:58think of like I've done with so many
136. 6:01projects because on shape is built with
137. 6:03a cloud native architecture it enables
138. 6:06features such as real-time collaboration
139. 6:08seamless integration with mobile and
140. 6:10tablet use for IOS and Android and
141. 6:13built-in product data management Cloud
142. 6:16Autos saving also means you won't ever
143. 6:18lose all of your work halfway through a
144. 6:21project file sharing can also be as
145. 6:23simple as just sending a link like the
146. 6:25ones I've left in the description on
147. 6:28shap is continuously adding new features
148. 6:29so make sure to go and get a free
149. 6:31account using my link on shape. prozero
150. 6:35and start making whatever you can think
151. 6:36of and that link is also down in the
152. 6:38description now to look at how the
153. 6:40wavespring and Generator work together
154. 6:43to maximize energy from the Waves by
155. 6:46allowing the pneumatic Springs and
156. 6:47cylinder to compress and expand hence
157. 6:50storing energy and releasing energy it
158. 6:53shifts the movement of the device more
159. 6:55in line with the waves a smart control
160. 6:58system also chooses how hard the
161. 7:01generator works so it extracts energy at
162. 7:04the perfect time this further helps to
163. 7:07ensure the boy continues to move in
164. 7:10Phase with the waves which is best for
165. 7:12maximizing power extraction one of their
166. 7:15scientific papers claimed that this
167. 7:18increases the overall energy extraction
168. 7:20by three times compared to a passive
169. 7:23system an analogy for how this works is
170. 7:25like a well-timed push on a swing by
171. 7:28managing when energy is stored or
172. 7:29released the motion of the swing or boy
173. 7:33can be optimized just like pushing a
174. 7:35swing at the right time using the
175. 7:37generator to control the flow of energy
176. 7:40can keep everything moving in time and
177. 7:43improve Energy Efficiency I briefly
178. 7:45mentioned this earlier but in order for
179. 7:47the boy to pull or push itself back
180. 7:49towards the ocean it needs to be
181. 7:51Tethered to the ocean floor each boy is
182. 7:54anchored to the seabed by a tensioned
183. 7:57moing system called the umac or
184. 8:00Universal moing anchoring and
185. 8:02connectivity kit according to Core Power
186. 8:05the umac anchor outperforms gravity
187. 8:07anchors and conventional monopiles in
188. 8:09terms of holding capacity cost and
189. 8:12carbon footprint it is also installed
190. 8:15with a highspeed and low noise method
191. 8:17making it friendlier to marine life as
192. 8:20well as withstanding extreme forces it
193. 8:22also acts as a secure path for
194. 8:24electrical cables to come from The Boy
195. 8:27The Wider vision is to have a of boys or
196. 8:30core packs laid out side by side in sets
197. 8:33of 5 10 and 30 megaw to form wave Farms
198. 8:38from here electricity will be delivered
199. 8:41to the grid collection hubs connected to
200. 8:43a single export cable amazing technology
201. 8:46aside the real driver for these
202. 8:48Innovations is the final levelized cost
203. 8:51of electricity which measures the
204. 8:53average total cost to produce one unit
205. 8:56of energy over the lifetime of the
206. 8:58system fact in in construction operation
207. 9:01and maintenance here is what Miguel Sila
208. 9:04managing director of Core Power had to
209. 9:06say on the topic in an interview he did
210. 9:09with the team enet who I'll leave a link
211. 9:11to in the description below the design
212. 9:13from the device and the concept behind
213. 9:16it it it has always lcoe as the main
214. 9:19metric so the levelized cost of
215. 9:21electricity so when you design the
216. 9:23machine and each of its components
217. 9:24you're thinking about the levelized cost
218. 9:26of energy so for example on the C four
219. 9:29that you see behind us you have a
220. 9:31composite hole it's a choice for lcoe
221. 9:33it's a it's a choice that moved us away
222. 9:36from traditional Halls of Steel that are
223. 9:38very vulnerable to raw material price
224. 9:41fluctuation and we moved to a high
225. 9:44efficiency mostly fully automated
226. 9:47process to manufacture from resin and
227. 9:50fiberglass so this immediately gave us a
228. 9:5470% reduction on lcoe so this is an
229. 9:57example how the the design is tuned
230. 10:00biometric that is feeding to the one of
231. 10:02the big targets that has to have to have
232. 10:04a competitive technology in the market
233. 10:07reports say that when a cumulative
234. 10:09capacity of 600 megaw is installed by
235. 10:122025 the levelized cost of energy will
236. 10:14be around $75 per megawatt hour I've
237. 10:18also seen that if they can install 20
238. 10:21gaw of these boys it will drop as low as
239. 10:24$35 per megawatt hour which is
240. 10:26competitive with wind and solar this
241. 10:29cost-driven approach is also how the
242. 10:31umac anchor was born Core Power says
243. 10:34that its installation by vibro Hammer is
244. 10:3715 to 20 DB quieter than any other
245. 10:40method which would really help
246. 10:42underwater noise pollution and I love
247. 10:44the way that it came about when we
248. 10:46thought about the mooding system there
249. 10:48were anchors in the market were very
250. 10:50expensive so the company decide okay
251. 10:53let's stop and think let's do our own
252. 10:55anchor system we have always a
253. 10:57collaborative approach where we work
254. 10:58with private sector and with Academia
255. 11:01all together and we got this very nice
256. 11:04uh Universal Ming anchor that will be a
257. 11:06solution for wave energy but also for
258. 11:08other markets for example floating
259. 11:10offshore wind and all these are winds
260. 11:12after the success of the C4 tests
261. 11:14they'll now be testing for all of the
262. 11:16arrays which will also be done off the
263. 11:19North Coast of Portugal with more boys
264. 11:21out at Sea in bigger arrays for longer
265. 11:24periods in potentially even bigger
266. 11:26storms a lot is riding on how well they
267. 11:30survived the violent and corrosive ocean
268. 11:32that's been the Nemesis of so many
269. 11:34systems but so far things are looking
270. 11:37positive with continued investment it
271. 11:39might not be long before Core Power
272. 11:41arrays can provide significant Renewable
273. 11:44Power to our energy grids in coastal
274. 11:46regions what I love about engineering is
275. 11:49how Innovation builds sometimes over
276. 11:51centuries layer on layer of success and
277. 11:54failure add up with Core Power
278. 11:56breakthroughs and continued development
279. 11:59commercial wave power is a lot closer
280. 12:01than it was and I can't wait to see how
281. 12:03they get on if you've enjoyed this video
282. 12:06please subscribe it's free and helps me
283. 12:08continue to bring videos on the
284. 12:10sustainable engineering that's happening
285. 12:12around our world you might also like a
286. 12:14recent video I did on these really
287. 12:16efficient LEDs that were inspired by
288. 12:18nature and fireflies and if you got
289. 12:21other subjects you'd like me to explore
290. 12:22please leave them in the comments below
291. 12:24thanks for watching