Wave Energy Converter Power Take-off for the Albany M4; Dry Test and Initial Deployment

Ocean wave energy is a plentiful resource. Over the past thirty years there have been many ingenious generation devices. However, none of the commercial startups have successfully competed with wind and solar, and little information about how devices performed is available in the public domain. In contrast, the motivation for the Albany M4 is to provide open-access design and operational
data. The M4 is a moored, multi-float, attenuator platform with a reciprocating, rotary, electromechanical power-take-off. This paper presents results and lessons learned for the drivetrain, starting with factory acceptance tests in May 2023, dry tests from Sept 2023 and sea trials from Nov 2024. Weaknesses in angular position measurement have been the cause of setbacks at different stages of development. In contrast, the data acquisition system is performing well and
the supercapacitor power smoothing is operating as planned. Despite concerns about gearbox durability, due to backlash and coupling problems, the reduced-scale platform has survived a six-month deployment, including a significant wave height of over 2 m, and generated up to an average power of approximately 2 kW over 20 min, with a peak power of over 20 kW.