The Challenge

Wave motion is slow, powerful and highly fluctuating in the short term, making wave energy devices inherently large and costly.

The peaks of the captured power are more than 10 times higher than the average, even within a given sea state.

The peak power is equivalent to the investment / life cycle cost of a wave energy converter and the average power production over the year is equivalent to the income. Read more
 

 

The Importance of Power Smoothing

OHT Power Take-off Solution

OHT is developing an ingenious power take-off (PTO) for wave energy converters using a weight accumulator to smooth the power captured from the ocean waves.

The OHT power smoothing device is installed before the electrical generator and reduces the peak-to-average power ratio from > 10 to approx. 1.3.

Peak power more than 10 times higher than the maximum allowed output power can be captured and utilized over time without overloading the generator.

The OHT power take-off technology can be used by a wide range of wave energy converters.

See our offer to wave power device developers and industrial companies and contact us for further information.

Key Advantages

With OHT power smoothing technology installed in a wave energy converter, the generated power from each individual unit in an array becomes smooth and suitable for the power transmission and grid integration. 

Power capture and thus annual power output is improved by enabling the high peaks of energy to be captured and utilized.

Power is smoothed early in the system and downstream costs of WEC components are greatly reduced. Read more