OPERA 2020: Open Sea Testing
Spain
On July 31, 2019, the Horizon 2020 OPERA project was successfully completed.
In this project the prototype of the wave energy converter (WEC) MARMOK-A-5 of IDOM has been used as a platform to test and validate several innovations that could reduce the cost of wave energy by up to 50%.
The main innovations included the use of elastomeric mooring tethers, a new bi-radial turbine for energy capture and new control strategies. All these innovations have been tested successfully.
In addition, the OPERA project has collected and published data from two years of MARMOK-A-5 operations at sea.
The Horizon 2020 OPERA project has used the IDOM MARMOK-A-5 to test and validate several innovations that could reduce the cost of wave energy by up to 50%
The MARMOK-A-5 is a prototype of a low power wave energy converter (WEC), based on Oscillating Water Column technology. The prototype is the result of public pre-commercial procurement by the EVE (Basque Energy Agency). It has been operating for 3 winters, in the open waters of the Atlantic, in the BiMEP test platform, where it has overcome waves of more than 14m. During this time the MARMOK-A-5 has been generating electricity and feeding it into the network thanks to an underwater umbilical cable that connects it to the shore.
