USA: GL Garrad Hassan Backs HINMREC Wave Energy Testing Program

GL Garrad Hassan has begun a project for the Hawai’i Natural Energy Institute at the University of Hawai’i (HNEI-UH) supporting the institute’s Hawai’i National Marine Renewable Energy Center (HINMREC) wave energy testing program.

HINMREC, under funding from the Wind and Water Power Program of the U.S. Department of Energy, is working in collaboration with the U.S. Navy to develop a Wave Energy Test Site (WETS) at the Marine Corps Base Hawaii (MCBH) in Kaneohe, Oahu.

WETS will provide a location for the ocean testing and demonstration of wave energy converter (WEC) devices. WEC technologies seek to convert the energy associated with the oscillatory motion of ocean surface waves into a more useful form – typically electricity. The WETS facility currently has one test berth established in 30m deep water, and is being expanded with two additional berths at 60m and 80m depths, with connection to the MCBH electricity grid.

HINMREC’s role at the WETS facility includes the evaluation of WEC system performance. To facilitate this responsibility GL Garrad Hassan’s expert wave energy team will provide wave energy test protocols, support HNEI-UH with processing performance data, and conduct independent numerical model verification exercises for HNEI-UH’s WEC operational models over the next two years. “We conducted a thorough search before choosing GL Garrad Hassan to provide us with what I like to call a reality check that can only be based on actual experience” said Dr. Luis Vega, Program Manager for HINMREC.

 Jarett Goldsmith, project manager for wave and tidal energy at GL Garrad Hassan America, also commented on the project saying: “Our wave energy team at GL Garrad Hassan is excited to bring our expertise to what we feel is a very important project for the industry. The development of such test sites in the United States, which reduce costs and risks of deployment and enable technology developers to learn more rapidly in a highly monitored environment, is critical for growth of the wave energy sector from its early stages into a fully realized commercial industry in this country.”

GL Garrad Hassan is a recognized world leader in the provision of independent technical and engineering services to the onshore and offshore wind, solar, wave and tidal sectors. For this work, GL Garrad Hassan will take advantage of its vast experience in marine and hydrokinetic (MHK) energy having worked on over 100 distinct projects in the wave and tidal energy across the globe, covering resource characterization, design and testing of MHK devices, project feasibility, front-end engineering studies, technical due diligence, and development of standards and guidelines. The project team will be applying a detailed knowledge of international best practices for the testing and development of MHK technologies to assist HNEI-UH with performance evaluation in a manner that ensures such best practices are adhered to, for the benefit of the emerging wave energy industry in the United States.

[mappress]

Press release, August 6, 2013; Image: gl