New Technology Could Make Waves in Africa

MIT researchers working together with teams from the Technical University of Lisbon have created a computer model which will allow them to significantly advance the ability to capture more energy from ocean waves crashing onshore.

Portugal was chosen as the pilot test site for the oscillating water column (OWC), but if a success, Africa could see the advancement in the near future. Currently, other wave-energy capture devices are operating in the southern part of Africa and are able to generate 100 to 200 MW of power per km of coastline.

The Portuguese test site will integrate its OWC into the breakwater at the mouth of the Douro River in Porto, a large city in northern Portugal. Three OWCs are expected to generate 750 kw, and will reduce the breakwater’s damaging erosion effects on the basin.

The researchers have already designed ways to compress huge volumes of air that result in continuous power generation despite infrequent or erratic-sized waves.

According to Chiang Mei, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT, "Given the future of conventional energy sources, we need lots of research on all kinds of alternative energy. Right now, wind energy and solar energy are in the spotlight because they’ve been developed for a longer time. With wave energy, the potential is large, but the engineering science is relatively young. We need to do more research."