Offshore platform that generates renewable energy and produces sustainable food sources is being developed in Edinburgh as part of the European collaborative TROPOS project.
The innovative system, designed at the University of Edinburgh (UoE) School of Engineering, harnesses wave, wind and solar power to generate renewable energy, which in turn can be used to power fish farming activities, as well as water desalination to produce fresh water.
The prototype was tested in the UoE, both at the curved wave facility and at FloWave , a water tank capable of simulating deep sea currents to a 1:20 scale designed for academic research into wave and tidal current interactions.
“Marine energy can be a very good driver to increase the economic productivity of many coastal communities. Putting together multi-use platforms that hybridise, for example, fish farming and energy generation, means you can use one area of sea for two productive uses. This is particularly important in Europe, where sea areas are particularly constrained,” said David Ingram , Professor of Computational Fluid Dynamics.
Funded by the European Commission, TROPOS’ main objective was to develop a floating multi-use platform system for use in deep waters.
However, even after the end of the project there is still a lot more to be done until these platforms can be made operational.
Different scale models are currently being built and tested in tanks, and within the next three to four years larger demonstrators will be tested in the sea, according to UoE.
“We are now seeing machines of 3-4 MW being built. The platforms in this project would be 10 MW platforms generating electricity,” Ingram added.
Take a look at the video explaining the TROPOS offshore platform in more detail.