REWEC3©

Innovative breakwaters to produce

energy from ocean waves

Wavenergy.it SrlVia Francesco Baracca, traversa De Salvo, 8/a

89123 Reggio Calabria (Italy)

info@wavenergy.it - www.wavenergy.itTel: 349.7074760 - 349.7090773

Fax: 0965.28778 www.wavenergy.it

REWEC3©

Estimated average electrical energy produced during 1 year from a REWEC plant with total lenght of 1 km:

Central Mediterranean Sea: 6000-9000MWhUSA, California: 66000MWh

Atlantic EU coast: 40000MWh

REWEC3 is a reinforced concrete caisson, which may be built in dry docks (see picture), using a well known construction procedure, widely adopted in port engineering.

A REsonant Wave Energy Converter (REWEC3, called also U-OWC, or J-OWC) is an advanced device to produce electrical power from ocean waves. It belongs to the family of Oscillating Water Colums (OWC) devices and it has the dramatic advantage to obtain an impressive natural resonance without any further device for phase control.

REWEC3©

A 1:10 scale field experiment was carried out in the NOEL (Natural Ocean Engineering Laboratory – www.noel.unirc.it – Director Professor Felice Arena) of the Mediterranea University, off the beach of Reggio Calabria, where a 16m long U-OWC was built on 2m water depth (see picture). The experiment was directed by Professor Paolo Boccotti. The theory and the results of the experiment were published on Ocean Engineering (Vol. 34, Issues 5-6, 2007).

WAVENERGY.ITis a limited company established for developing devices for producing electrical power from oceans.In 2010 the company has been recognized as Spin Off of the Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria (Italy).

WAVENERGY.IT s.r.l. has the exclusive international licence for the REWEC3, which has been patented by prof. Paolo Boccotti (Italy) (European patent N. 1332519).

Principle of REWEC plantsUnder wave motion the air in the chamber is alternately compressed (under wave crests) and decompressed (under wave troughs), so that an alternate air flow is produced in a duct, which drives a self-rectifying turbine. Then, a coaxial generator produces electrical energy.

Detailed description of a RESONANT WAVE ENERGY CONVERTER (REWEC 3)The caisson has, on the wave-beaten side, a vertical duct (1) that is connected both to the sea through an upper opening (2), and to an inner room (3) through a lower opening (4). This inner room contains a water mass (3a) in its lower part and an air pocket (3b) in its upper part. An air-duct (5), which connects the air pocket (3b) to the atmosphere, contains a self-rectifying turbine (6). When waves produce a pressure fluctuation at the outer opening (2), water oscillates up and down in the duct (1), and the air pocket alternately is compressed and expanded. Then, an alternate air flow is obtained in the air duct which drives the self-rectifying turbine (6).

0,00 m. s.l.m.

1

2

4

3a

3b5

6