C-Power upgrades SeaRAY and sends it back to Hawaii

U.S.-based marine energy company C-Power has upgraded the SeaRAY ocean energy system, and returned it back to Marine Core Base Hawaii in Oahu, from the company’s facility in Corvallis, Oregon.

At the company’s facility, SeaRAY acquired more refined power electronics and some other improvements, C-Power said.

C-Power plans to redeploy SeaRAY for the second phase of the field test at the U.S. Navy’s wave energy test site (WETS) this summer, demonstrating the SeaRAY’s ability to power subsea sensors and a Saab Sabertooth AUV.

The SeaRAY autonomous offshore power system (AOPS) offers power, energy storage, and real-time communications for autonomous and connected ocean technologies. It supports uncrewed offshore activities and equipment, such as subsea vehicles, sensor packages, and operating equipment.

In June 2023, C-Power completed preliminary trials of its SeaRAY AOPS, which was later deployed for a six-month pilot project at the U.S. Navy’s WETS off the Hawaii coast.

With support from Sea Engineering, C-Power tested the components of the AOPS — a SeaRAY wave power system and the Halo subsea battery storage system and gravity anchor from Verlume — in the water to ensure proper system deployment and operation.

In terms of other recent news coming from C-Power, the company’s “Optimization of a Wave Power System (WPS) Structure and Interfaces for Generator Integration” project was funded by the U.S. Testing Expertise and Access to Marine Energy Research (TEAMER) program through its twelfth Request For Technical Support (RFTS). 

C-Power’s project aims to explore optimal design strategies for integrating a new segmented, direct-drive permanent magnet generator (PMG) into a utility-scale wave power system (WPS).