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But the team will also collect information on how well marine energy devices cohabit with marine ecosystems. But these numbers are negotiable the xWave can be smaller or larger to suit a customer’s needs and can work in a variety of depths and distances from shore.ĭuring this trial, CalWave will collect data on how the xWave operates out at sea. In the San Diego sea trial, the 15-foot-long xWave is anchored at the test site and deployed in water nearly 100 feet deep. Operators can also remotely shut the device down to protect it during storms.Īs a bonus, submerging the xWave keeps it hidden, ensuring beautiful ocean vistas stay that way. When more destructive swells roll in, the xWave autonomously drops lower to avoid them. Instead of floating on the ocean’s surface, the xWave operates while submerged at different depths.
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While many wave energy developers cloak their machines in heavy steel, the xWave design uses a far lighter, less expensive technique. There, it will transform the ocean’s oscillating motion into electricity, which is then transported back to shore.ĭuring severe weather events, CalWave’s xWave has some tricks to weather even the most tumultuous storms. For six months, the device will rock in the waves 1,800 feet-or about six football fields-off that pier. 16, 2021, CalWave took that salty plunge: The company deployed its xWave prototype off the University of California San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography research pier in San Diego, California. But before marine energy companies like CalWave take their designs to the market, they must first take them to the ocean, a salty-and therefore corrosive-and volatile environment. CalWave’s xWave uses a promising architecture. Today, the technology is at an inflection point. “From powering autonomous vehicles for ocean exploration to transforming salt water into fresh for remote island communities or disaster recovery situations, marine energy devices have a vast range of potential applications.” Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO), which provided funding to CalWave to design, build, and test its proprietary technology. “Marine energy systems, like CalWave’s xWave, are exciting not just because they can provide clean, carbon-free energy to coastal communities,” said Yana Shininger, a technical project officer for the U.S.
#Xwave brain portable#
coastlines: Offshore, portable wave energy devices could help power the growing blue economy, including sensor-equipped sea drones that collect data on ocean ecosystems for marine research. On its own, wave energy could satisfy up to 34% of the United States’ electricity needs. Combined, the three renewable resources could provide the grid with reliable power both day and night and year-round. When the sun sets and winds slow, waves keep moving at a steady pace through all four seasons. Wave energy is also a good complement to other renewable energy resources. “Wave power is regarded as the largest unused renewable resource and the third-largest technical feasible resource,” said Lehmann, who co-founded California-based CalWave in 2014. The launch edges the technology closer to providing grid-connected electricity for coastal communities worldwide. In September 2021, one of those designs-CalWave’s xWave-got a step closer with the company’s (and California’s) first at-sea, long-duration wave energy pilot project. Several architectural designs are currently vying for commercial success. But the marine energy industry-which develops technology that creates electricity from ocean waves, currents, and tides-is in an earlier stage of development. Through decades of development, the solar power and wind energy industries have homed in on the most cost-effective and efficient designs to transform these energy sources into electricity. Today, as the CEO of CalWave Power Technologies, Inc., Lehmann and his team build machines to capture a different, newer renewable energy source: the energy of ocean waves. After hearing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change urgently call for more renewable energy, the young engineer decided to dedicate his career to thwarting climate change with new renewable energy solutions.
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In high school, Marcus Lehmann built a solar-powered race car.
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