Wave Power Plant Starts Generating Electricity

Generating electricity with the power of ocean waves - this has recently been done at a test facility in the Belgian North Sea.

The plant was developed by Nemos with the support of the Federal Ministry of Economics. Nemos cooperates with the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE), among others. The test operation will run for two years. If it is successful, a power plant will be built.

Jan Peckolt came up with the idea for the development of a wave power plant during his diploma thesis.

In 2012 he founded the start-up company Nemos to realize the technology. This is how it works: 40 metre long floating bodies are installed in the open sea, similar to offshore wind farms. They are aligned to the swell of the sea and convert up to 70 percent of the wave energy into mechanical energy, which in turn is used by a generator to generate electricity.

Peckolt won several prizes for this development. He patented the control system, and his company continued to research the plant together with scientists thanks to subsidies from Berlin. Complex model tests and analyses were carried out at the Development Centre for Ship Technology and Transport Systems (DST) and at several chairs of the UDE. "Geotechnics, for example, was indispensable for the foundation design of the plant and the conceptual design of the installation process," says Jan Peckolt. "The researchers carried out numerous simulations and tests under controlled laboratory conditions and in natural waters.

Essential components of the plant were tested and optimized in the laboratories of the department for energy storage and transport on a 40-ton test rig. The Department of Mechatronics and the Institute of Marine Engineering, Marine Technology and Transport Systems supported the development with their know-how.

Liros GmbH and Schaeffler Technologies also contributed to the success of the project. They developed important components for the Nemos wave power plant. Various components were specially qualified for use in seawater under the toughest conditions.

Since mid-September, a scaled plant prototype has been in trial operation in the Belgian North Sea off Ostend. If this proves its worth, the final step follows: the first commercial power plants are then to be built, each delivering electricity for 700 to 800 households.