Wave of success for Scottish winner of Inventor of the Month
Published Wed 29 Apr 2009
Green Ocean Energy Ltd, a renewable energy company headquartered in Aberdeen, Scotland, has been named as April’s winner of Inventor of the Month.
The firm successfully used Autodesk Inventor software in the development of the Ocean Treader and Wave Treader, floating devices that convert the motion of the ocean into clean, renewable energy.
The Ocean Treader is much like a buoy with a pair of arms, and is meant to be moored one to two miles offshore in open water. The Wave Treader shares a similar design but is intended to be mounted on the base of a static offshore structure, such as a wind turbine or tidal turbine. Both devices work on the same principle: as the ocean causes the floating arms to rise and fall, the motion is harvested by hydraulic cylinders that generate electricity, which can then be exported back to shore via cable.
The Treaders were tested digitally in Inventor for the harsh North Atlantic conditions, where wave heights range from a relatively small six to 10 feet, to as much as 30 feet during winter storms.
"Fortunately, Inventor is more than just design software; it's an analysis tool too," says George Smith, managing director at Green Ocean. "Inventor allows us to validate our designs on the computer before there's any investment made in constructing a physical prototype."
The digital prototypes have allowed the firm to begin extensive indoor wave-pool testing, before raising funds to develop a full-size prototype to start offshore testing in 2011. The Inventor of the Month program recognises the most innovative design and engineering advancements made community using Autodesk Inventor software.
