Oceans of Energy
Technology
REALITY AT SEA: THE SINGLE SOURCE OF TRUTH
Oceans of Energy’s offshore farm system is the result of unique design choices and many years of iterations with systems at full sea in real conditions. Calculations, simulations and model testing are very important, but nothing beats the actual sea in telling us whether a design is strong enough to survive. The reality at sea is the only source of truth and has driven the Oceans of Energy system to perfection. This has been a process of multiple years at sea. Every new offshore solar system will need such time and many iterations to succeed.
LIKE A WATERLILY; MINIMIZING MATERIAL
Oceans of Energy's offshore solar farm technology is based on the inspiring example of the water lily plant. A water lily is surprisingly strong when floating in the water. The water surface carriers the own weight of the structure, hence the waterlily itself needs little structural material.
It can increase in size, without increasing 'own weight' problems, as its own weight is taken care of by the water. No extra material is needed to carry its own weight. The waterlily only needs to withstand dynamic loads.
This is exactly the same for the Oceans of Energy offshore solar system.
It may not be a coincidence that the water lily also is a solar collector itself. Nature has shown us the way to cover a large area of water surface to collect solar radiation, while having a minimum of structural materials.
FLEXIBLE LIKE BAMBOO, MINIMIZING LOADS AND MATERIALS
As the OOE offshore solar farm system uses a combination of solutions from nature with which we can cover a large area of the sea with a scalable, lightweight structure with minimum material usage, just like a waterlily; that can cover large surface areas without heavy reinforcements that would be needed to carry something in the air; and which moves with the incoming waves, allowing twisting and bending without inducing internal loads, just like a vertebral column.
The behavior of the Oceans of Energy farm system as a whole is like bamboo compared to the oak tree. An oak tree contains a lot of material, it can withstand a lot of loading from nature by being rock solid and not giving in, until at some point it collapses. Bamboo contains very little material, it moves along with the environmental loadings, and it much more robust against failure.
BUILD AT SEA LEVEL, REQUIRED FOR SCALE
Our first design choice was to build a system directly at sea level, like a waterlily, to minimize materials and to maximize scaling potential. This is novel; in offshore applications, such as offshore oil& gas and offshore wind, typically a platform is elevated above sea level to stay away from the waves. While this is logical for a single point structure, it is not sensible for offshore solar, because of the large surface area. Elevating a large area (1km2) above sea level would soon require too much material, because of its own weight. When we look at an elevated structures, for example a bridge, most of the structural material is needed to carry its own weight. The own weight problem becomes bigger with larger size. Materials, and hence the costs, rise exponentially.
For this reason, the Oceans of Energy offshore solar floaters are not elevated but directly at sea level, supported by the water, like a waterlily.
The magic of the waterlily, is that its own weight is carried by the water and it can scale to any size without running into ' own weight' problems. See the next section, on Waterlilies
LIKE A BACKBONE, MINIMIZING LOADS
The offshore solar system must survive in violent, high waves. The best way to achieve this is to follow the dynamic movements of the waves without inducing internal loads. Since we want to be able to use standard, rigid PV panels, in order to be able to scale up to large volumes without being dependent on non-standard/non-commercial PV materials, the question was, how to follow dynamic movements when at the same time, PV panels are rigid and therefore the system needs to have rigid elements for supporting these panels without loading them?
Another element found in nature brought the solution: the vertebral column of the human body, our backbone. Our body's central support structure consists of rigid parts, the bones, and flexible parts, the disks. This combination allows us to twist and move and form a curvature. In a similar fashion, the OOE offshore solar farm system consists of rigid ‘pontoons’ that support standard rigid type PV modules, and in-between the pontoons there are flexible interconnectors that allow for movements. Just like the skeletal spine, the rigid and flexible parts together allow for a curvature that follows the wavelengths. This is exactly what we need at sea to make the floating system move with the waves without inducing high loads in the system.
THE ONLY SYSTEM IN THE WORLD WITH 4 YEARS TRACK RECORD IN HIGH WAVES
Oceans of Energy is the first and the only company in the world to have installed and operated for four years solar panels offshore in high wave offshore conditions.