Evolution of the AWS Waveswing(TM) MkII Concept

Magazine article, 2008

The evolution of the Archimedes Waveswing™ concept up to 2007 is described. AWS Ocean Energy Ltd have continued to tackle the fundamental functional issues like absorption, control, power conversion and power export as they apply to the Waveswing™, but now with a particular emphasis on the equally essential lifecycle goals such as maintainability, manufacturability, deployability and of course overall economic viability. These efforts have been centred on the evolving concept design of a Mk II Waveswing™ demonstrator for deployment at the EMEC test site. At its core, the Mk II is still fundamentally the same wave power concept of a variable displacement submerged absorber with its inherent broadbandedness and the ability to respond easily to long period wave excitations. However, some important developments have been made since the Mk I pilot in Portugal and this paper highlights some practical examples of how the Waveswing™ concept has matured since early testing.