GL Garrad Hassan begins wave testing at Hawai’i National Marine Renewable Energy Center

GL Garrad Hassan is supporting a wave testing programme at Hawai’i National Marine Renewable Energy Center (HINMREC), located at the Hawai’i Natural Energy Institute at the University of Hawai’i (HNEI-UH).

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HINMREC in partnership with the US Navy will develop a wave energy test site (WETS) at the Marine Corps Base Hawaii (MCBH) in Kaneohe, Oahu, while the US Department of Energy’s Wind and Water Power Program will provide funding for the centre.

A location for ocean testing and demonstration of wave energy converter (WEC) devices will be provided by WTES, as the existing WETS facility has one test berth set up in 30m deep water.

In addition, two additional berths will be established at 60m and 80m depths, with connection to the MCBH electricity grid.

HINMREC’s role at the WETS facility includes the evaluation of WEC system performance.

"Our wave energy team at GL Garrad Hassan is excited to bring our expertise to what we feel is a very important project for the industry."

GL Garrad Hassan said that its wave energy team will provide energy test protocols, support HNEI-UH with processing performance data, and conduct independent numerical model verification exercises for HNEI-UH’s WEC operational models for the next two years.

HINMREC programme manager Luis Vega said, "We conducted a thorough search before choosing GL Garrad Hassan to provide us with what I like to call a reality check that can only be based on actual experience."

GL Garrad Hassan America wave and tidal energy project manager Jarett Goldsmith said, "Our wave energy team at GL Garrad Hassan is excited to bring our expertise to what we feel is a very important project for the industry.

"The development of such test sites in the United States, which reduce costs and risks of deployment and enable technology developers to learn more rapidly in a highly monitored environment, is critical for growth of the wave energy sector from its early stages into a fully-realised commercial industry in this country."

Image: The WETS site will be situated just offshore of the Marine Corps Base Hawaii. Photo: courtesy of the USMC.