Partners
AXYS Technologies Inc.
(AXYS) is an ISO 9001-2008 registered Canadian company, located in Sidney, British Columbia. AXYS commenced operations in 1974 as an oceanographic consulting company. Over the past 38 years, AXYS has evolved into a world leader in the provision of turnkey environmental monitoring systems, providing over 500 systems to clients in 50 countries. AXYS’ main product lines include, TRIAXYS™ directional wave buoys, meteorological ocean buoys, WindSentinel™ wind resource assessment buoys, water quality buoys, and port and vessel traffic management solutions. AXYS’ Field Service Specialists offer training and continued support to customers in the operation and maintenance of all products.
Cascadia Coast Research Ltd.
For Cascadia Coast Research Ltd (CCR), the West Coast Wave Initiative is an excellent opportunity to support wave energy technology developers interested in Vancouver Island's West Coast while improving and developing tools to push the entire industry foreward. CCR specializes in ocean modelling and marine renewable energy resource assessment - the WCWI will provide a high profile showcase for our wave modelling capacity and provide opportunities for further development of our computational tools.
CCR has performed wave and tidal resource assessments on the East and West Coast of Canada and internationally for clients in industry, academia and government. CCR also contributes to the development of international standards for marine renewable energy converters an part of the IEC TC114.
Recently we completed a joint project with the University of Victoria, Mavi Innovations and Acadia University to improve the state of the art in tidal resource assessment and tidal turbine modelling. The project developed a methodology to couple oceanographic (large-scale) models with turbine scale CFD models. The resulting tool is better able to estimate turbine loading and the effects of the turbines on the wider environment.
In addition to marine renewable energy, CCR uses its ocean modelling expertise to assess coastal hazards due to wind-waves, currents, tides, storm surge, sea level rise and tsunami.
In the next 3 years of work with the WCWI CCR will develop a suite of technologically advanced wave models of the BC Coast capable of fore-casting and hind-casting waves with the high fidelity required to foster effective wave energy development. The most important of these will be a unstructured spectral wave model using the SWAN wave modelling software which will cover the entire West Coast shoreline of Vancouver Island and extend out to the deep ocean waters past the continental shelf. This model will be driven with local winds and spectral wave boundary conditions from an ocean-scale WaveWavtchIII model. When development is complete, this model will provide accurate estimates of wave spectra near-shore which can be used directly for assessment of wave resources and serve a boundary conditions to more detailed shoreline wave models.
Dynamic Systems Analysis Ltd.
Dynamic Systems Analysis Ltd. (DSA) is an engineering consulting group that develops the engineering analysis software ProteusDS. The motivation for participating in the WCWI project is to provide the analysis software tools that will facilitate an understanding of mechanical power capture of a range of devices on the west coast of Canada.
DSA is providing a wealth of simulation experience and analysis software that will be used to create numerical models of partner technologies. ProteusDS is used to study the dynamics of mechanical structures in the ocean and has been used to simulate a range of systems in aquaculture, oil and gas, ocean robotics, and marine renewable energy systems. In the field of marine renewable energy, full scale ocean wave energy and ocean current energy systems have been simulated and verified against physical test results.
While DSA has used ProteusDS in a wide range of applications, this project will test software capabilities across a wide range of ocean wave technologies. This will provide us with feedback to help in the refinement of our simulation software to better address general use.
Seawood Designs Inc. (SurfPower)
Seawood Designs Inc. has contracted with Dynamic Systems Analysis (DSA) for computer modelling, by which we have demonstrated the potential of SurfPower to deliver energy and also survive the rigors of the environment. The validity of the modelling software and its application to SurfPower has been validated by comparing actual wave tank results (NRC - St John's NFLD) with computer modelled results.
Wave tank modelling employed system components at scale that reflected full scale designs thereby confirming that from a hardware perspective we are on the right track.
Wave tank trials and computer modelling have identified a number of potential opportunities to greatly improve energy recovery and also provides a "storm" operating mode that very significantly reduces the risk of storm damage. These concepts will be investigated in depth, during the WCWI program. During our involvement with the WCWI project we hope to achieve the following:
- Gain a more detailed understanding of the wave resource off Vancouver Island in both terms of energy recovery potential and unique wave conditions that are a system "survival" challenge.
- Advance our understanding of both the economic viability of wave energy and how SurfPower's performance compares to other developer's WECS.
- Advance the technical viability of SurfPower through critiques from others in the program who have different skill sets and experience.
- Advance the design and economic viability of SurfPower through modeling new concepts and manipulating system parameters to optimize annual energy recovery in the West Coast wave regime.
- Strengthen SurfPower's credibility as a viable technology worthy of continued investment by both Governments and the private sector.
Seawood Design's primary goal is to demonstrate with considerable confidence that SurfPower can deliver energy at a cost of 15 ¢/kWh when deployed in the West Coast wave regime.