How ships could one day harness the power of the waves

Scientists in China are currently developing a mechanism to enable boats to capture and store wave energy to meet on-board power needs. While this approach is still in its infancy, it could help reduce carbon emissions from maritime transport.

Researchers at China’s Shanghai Ship and Shipping Research Institute are working on a way of converting wave energy into power to meet on-board needs by using an oscillator system inside the ship’s structure. This concept involves the ship acting as a platform capable of transforming kinetic energy (from the boat’s movements) into electrical energy.

Once this energy has been converted, the ship would then be able to store it and use it for on-board power needs, the researchers explain in a paper published in the journal Renewable Energy and spotted by Recharge News.

In recent years, wave energy produced by the undulating motion of waves has been harnessed as a renewable energy source thanks to wave energy converters (WECs), which are then able to convert the mechanical energy generated by wave oscillation into electrical energy. Scientists at the Shanghai Institute of Ship and Shipping Research Institute have based their design on this method, using a hydraulic cylinder to create a device known as a “heaving oscillator”.

This “capitalises on the kinetic energy produced by the ship heaving, rolling, and pitch motion to generate electrical energy under multi-directional waves”, explain the researchers, who are currently working on a prototype of their device to test its effectiveness.

While this research focuses on on-board power use, other projects are investigating ways of using wave power for propulsion. In 2020, for example, a Philippine engineer named Jonathan Salvador developed the Bangka, a trimaran designed to carry passengers, propelled by the force of waves.

Similarly, in 2013, France’s Geps Techno developed the MLiner, a floating platform measuring 200 meters long and 90 meters wide, integrating four renewable energy sources: wind, tidal, wave and solar. – AFP Relaxnews