U.S. Department of Energy Marine Energy Collegiate Competition (MECC)
Team Name: Osprey Clean Renewable Energy from Waves (CREW) or Osprey CREW
University of North Florida, Jacksonville, Florida
Team deliverables
- Poster: Next Generation Wave Energy Converter: Harnessing the Energy of the Ocean
- Presentation: OSPREY C.R.E.W. WEC: Clean Renewable Energy from Waves
- Report: Next Generation Wave Energy Converter (WEC) with Linear Generator: OSPREY CREW (Clean, Reliable Energy from Waves)
Vision and mission: Why this competition?
The Osprey Clean Renewable Energy from Waves (CREW) team cares deeply about the Earth and its oceans. Operating out of the coastal community of Jacksonville, Florida, Osprey CREW recognizes that the ocean is an integral part of our community. We feel that protecting the Earth and its oceans should be society’s top priority. By participating in the MECC, we aim to do our part to protect the Earth and oceans.
By helping to design a Wave Energy Converter (WEC), we hope to produce a feasible alternative to fossil fuels. The ocean has great potential to serve as a major source of electrical energy alongside other renewable energy sources such as solar and wind. We would like to be a part of the push to make ocean technology possible in a safe and sustainable manner.
Background
The Osprey CREW is developing a point absorber WEC that operates based on Faradays Law of Induction. The WEC operates by housing several coils of water beneath the surface of the ocean. A float with several shafts mounted to it will be on the ocean’s surface. The shafts will connect to magnets which will pass through the coils below the surface. As the magnets are moved in and out of the coils, an electrical current will be induced in the wire allowing for the capture of electricity from ocean waves.
The target market for this WEC will be disaster relief areas. Coastal communities impacted by natural disasters are often forced to rely on gas generators to power their recovery efforts. The Osprey CREW aims to have their WEC serve as an alternative to the gas generators. When recovery efforts begin, a community should be able to deploy WECs to meet their energy needs.
This OspreyCREW aims to construct different mooring configurations in an outdoor wave basin. An analysis will be conducted on the various mooring configurations tested and the power delivered by the WEC. An intermediate WEC design will be used for the various mooring configurations in shallow water conditions.
Strategy
This year’s game plan involves finishing the manufacturing of the intermediate WEC prototype. The intermediate WEC device allows the team to better identify design flaws that would likely arise in a full-scale model that is sized for deployment in the ocean. Testing will being once the intermediate scale device is manufactured. A major priority is to test various mooring configurations in a shallow water wave basin.
A major team strength would be presentation. The team has gained extensive experience in public outreach over the past six months by presenting at two separate conferences. The presentations have allowed the team to connect with different audiences and highlight the importance and urgency of our development of a WEC. We will use this strength to generate local excitement about marine energy through public outreach as well as convey a strong final presentation to the competition judges.
Another significant strength is that we have a small but strong interdisciplinary team composed of civil engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, and business majors. Having such a small team enables us to communicate more effectively across the various focuses of the project.
It’s been difficult to manufacture the intermediate scale design. While manufacturing progress was being made at the conclusion of last year’s competition, progress slowed when team members left for the summer break. As manufacturing resumes for this year’s competition, we hope to be able to pick up where we left off using the notes and documentation from last year.
Additional information
We try to recruit students through student clubs, class announcements and \advisors. We welcome everyone who wants to join the team and encourage individuals with disabilities, women, and minorities.
We haven’t established connections with the marine energy industry. But that is one of our goals this year. A few lessons were learned from the previous competition. One big lesson was that magnet configurations can impact device performance. Stacking magnets may increase the power output, but only if they can pass all the way through the coils of wire. An issue the OspreyCREW experienced last year was not being able to fully move the magnets through the coil of wire in the point absorber. This issue encouraged the team to create a new magnet configuration that takes advantage of the magnets’ polarity.
Numerical modeling was also a significant challenge. While a great deal of effort was put into generating a valid numerical model, acceptable results have yet to be produced. Moving forward, the team will continue to produce detailed modeling documentation. Such record keeping will hopefully enable smooth transitions as new students cycle into the team and aid with the hydrodynamic-analysis objective.
Social media accounts
Instagram: @osprey.crew
Website: UH MECC
This portal is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) under Contract Number DE- AC36-08GO28308 with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Contract Number DE-AC05-76RL01830 with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Contract Number DE-NA0003525 with Sandia National Laboratories, as part of the MHK Data Communities project. The United States Government retains, and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes.