“We are proud to be CorPower’s preferred partner in this industry-advancing project. CorPower contacted us because they were looking for an engineering firm with extensive experience and unique competence in designing and building composite pressure vessels for offshore applications,” says Reidar Anderssen, General Manager at OPS Solutions.
Swedish CorPower Ocean builds on more than forty years of ocean energy research to bring a new generation of high-efficiency Wave Energy Converters (WECs) to market, enabling robust and cost-effective harvesting of electricity from ocean waves.
According to CorPower, the unique concept offers five times more energy per ton of device compared to previously known wave technologies.
WEIGHT AND PRICE
“Since 2018 CorPower has tested a half-scale WEC in the waters of Scotland with very good results. OPS Solutions is now involved in the next phase of the project; Developing composite components for the full scale WEC, before ocean installation outside Portugal in late 2022,” explains Anderssen.
There is in particular two challenges that CorPower addresses: How to reduce weight and lower material costs.
“For this purpose, composite is the perfect material. Composite is up to 50 per cent lighter than steel, and – given no risk of corrosion, maintenance costs are minimal,” says Anderssen.
The two companies will develop, test and manufacture a light-weight pressure casing that will make the CorPowers buoy-type WEC system significantly lighter. By doing so and using cost-effective materials and production technology, the new solution aims to increase energy efficiency while decreasing cost of energy.
COMPACT
“We are excited to join forces with OPS Solutions”, says Tord Jonsson, Supply Chain and Quality Manager at CorPower Ocean.
“On our path to realizing renewable clean wave energy, CorPower Ocean needs to find and team up with the most suitable and professional suppliers in the world. Time to market is crucial and our supply chain needs to be innovative, efficient in lead-time and cost, while complying with highest quality and certification requirements. We could quickly build a trustful partnership with OPS Solutions to make advanced, but cost effective, light weight pressure vessels, customized for our needs”, says Jonsson.
The project is named COMPACT (COMposite Pressure cAsing for CosT). It has received nearly EUR 500,000 from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway under the EEA Grants «Blue Growth Program» and is to be finished in 2022.
“I might add that we are also well into a production of two projects of in total 19 large diameter pressure vessels to Veolia water treatment. We started production last august and aim to deliver by Easter. In total this is a large project for us, and we hope to deliver more projects with a similar product for this customer in the future,” says Anderssen.
