New Wave Energy Device Placed Offshore Italy

The Politecnico di Torino and the spin-off Wave for Energy have developed the first Italian 1:1 scale device for the production of electricity from sea waves.

The device has been moored 800 meters from the coast of Pantelleria.

The research activities, started 10 years ago and conducted by the group led by Giuliana Mattiazzo and Ermanno Giorcelli from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Politecnico di Torino, led to the development of the technology industrialized by Wave for Energy, spin-off of the University, which carried forward the construction of the first pre-commercial machine.

The technology, is called ISWEC (Inertial Sea Wave Energy Converter). After the first concept developed in 2006, experimental validation followed and was carried on with a 1: 8 system and conducted in the INSEAN’s towing tank. In February 2012 the team started the work on the final full scale release, which was now deployed into the sea.

The wave power plant is composed of a gyroscopic group housed inside a watertight mono-hull vessel secured to the sea floor by a slack mooring line. The interaction between the sea waves, the hull and the gyroscopic system inside enables the generation of electricity, which can be then transferred to the grid.

Thanks to the collaboration with the ENEA’s group directed by Gianmaria Sannino, within the “Sistema Elettrico” research framework, the most suitable installation site has been identified. According to the company, when compared to other systems under development in Europe, ISWEC is distinguished by the absence of parts in relative motion immersed the water, as the whole conversion group is allocated in a sealed environment inside the floating body. Furthermore, the device does not require fixed constraints on the seabed for its operation, but only a slack mooring, guaranteeing an extremely reduced environmental impact.

The system has overall dimensions of 8 m width, 15 m length and 4.5 m height, a draft of 3.2 m and emerges 1.3 m from the sea surface. It will be moored at a distance of about 800 m from the shore and at 35 m depth in the northwest side of the island.

In the first operating phase, the system will not be connected to the island’s grid, but it will dissipate over an array of resistances. In September/October subsea cable will be laid down to connect the machine to the grid.

Enea and IAMC from Capogranitola conducted activities related to the environmental impact assessment. Enea was responsible for the mapping of Posidonia before and after the installation, while CNR, with the research group coordinated by Giuseppa Buscaino, made the noise and environmental impact analysis of the device.