{"id":1419,"date":"2021-03-26T00:26:46","date_gmt":"2021-03-26T00:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/eecsnews\/?p=1419"},"modified":"2021-03-26T00:26:46","modified_gmt":"2021-03-26T00:26:46","slug":"three-college-of-engineering-marine-energy-initiatives-to-receive-department-of-energy-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/eecsnews\/2021\/03\/26\/three-college-of-engineering-marine-energy-initiatives-to-receive-department-of-energy-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"Three College of Engineering marine energy initiatives to receive Department of Energy funding"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"In
In April 2016, Oregon State University engineering doctoral students Dylan Jones and Seth McCammon deploy a Seabotix remotely operated vehicle to perform an autonomous underwater survey at the North Energy Test Site off the coast of Newport, OR.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s Water Power Technologies Office recently announced support of up to $22 million for 10 marine energy research projects, including three represented by researchers from Oregon State University\u2019s College of Engineering. (The award amounts for each project are under negotiation.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor industry to move toward commercialization, we need to utilize all of our available resources,\u201d said  Daniel R. Simmons, assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy, in a Dec. 22 article<\/a> on the DOE website. \u201cWith this funding opportunity, we addressed several critical gaps in the marine energy industry to advance early-stage R&D and build testing infrastructure, as well as foster collaboration among non-federal research entities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the proposed projects, led by Oregon State, will consider the co-design of marine energy converters for autonomous underwater vehicle docking and recharging. Two partner institutions, the University of Washington and the University of Hawaii at Manoa, will play supporting roles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo one has been able to design a system to reliably dock an autonomous underwater vehicle with a marine energy converter in energetic ocean conditions,\u201d said Geoff Hollinger<\/a>, associate professor of mechanical engineering and robotics and Oregon State\u2019s principal investigator for the energy converter project. \u201cWe would be the first to do that. It would open up a huge new market for inspection, monitoring, and repairs in marine energy systems without relying on expensive ship support.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Testing will be conducted in the O.H. Hinsdale Wave Lab<\/a> at Oregon State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a second project, researchers will test models for integrating marine energy into microgrids. Oregon State will support the work, which will be led by the University of Alaska Fairbanks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Microgrids are local energy grids that can be connected to the main energy grid or operated independently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOver the past few years, there\u2019s been agreement on what are good models for wind generation and other renewable energy sources, but models for marine hydrokinetic converters need further validation and benchmarking,\u201d said Eduardo Cotilla-Sanchez<\/a>, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and Oregon State\u2019s principal investigator for the microgrid project. \u201cI\u2019m most excited about bringing together the marine microgrid environment and the expertise of on-shore power engineers to leverage their historical knowledge of how to run power systems efficiently and safely, while advancing new forms of clean energy that the ocean provides.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the third project involving the College of Engineering, researchers will pursue the development of modeling methods that facilitate the design of wave energy converters. The venture will be led by the University of Washington and supported by Oregon State and the University of Alaska Fairbanks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Members of the Energy Systems Group inspect microgrid electrical equipment in at the Wallace Energy Systems & Renewables facility at Oregon State, February 2019. From left: College of Engineering graduate Marissa Kwon; Eduardo Cotilla-Sanchez; Yue Cao, assistant professor of electrical & computer engineering; Ted Brekken; and doctoral student Ali Haider.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Wave energy converters transform the kinetic and potential energy of ocean waves into mechanical or electrical energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur objective is to develop models for wave energy converters that bring electrical, hydrodynamic, and mechanical domains under one framework and that lead to improved simulation speed, flexibility, and design,\u201d said Ted Brekken<\/a>, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Oregon State and one of the researchers representing the team focused on the model\u2019s electrical components.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bryson Robertson<\/a>, associate professor of coastal and ocean engineering at Oregon State and principal investigator for the wave energy modeling project, offered a broader context about the potential impact of all three endeavors: \u201cThe work will help to fill fundamental gaps in our knowledge of marine energy sources and to overcome barriers to the development of emerging technologies,\u201d he said. \u201cUltimately we hope it leads to reduced costs and improved performance of renewable marine energy.\u201d The projects will also offer cross-disciplinary research experiences for College of Engineering students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 By Steve Frandzel<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s Water Power Technologies Office recently announced support of up to $22 million for 10 marine energy research projects, including three represented by researchers from Oregon State University\u2019s College of Engineering. (The award amounts for each project are under negotiation.)  \u201cFor industry to move toward commercialization, we need to utilize all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":935,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[523,1],"tags":[911068,1394240,1394239,1394241],"class_list":["post-1419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research","category-uncategorized","tag-department-of-energy","tag-eduardo-cotilla-sanchez","tag-marine-energy","tag-ted-brekken"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/eecsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/eecsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/eecsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/eecsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/935"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/eecsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1419"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/eecsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1421,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/eecsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1419\/revisions\/1421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/eecsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/eecsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/eecsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}