Converting Waves into Electricity with Automation Solutions by ifm
May 24, 2023
By developing wave energy converters, CorPower pursues the idea of converting waves into electricity. The challenge with wave energy is to design devices that are not only robust enough to survive the harshest ocean storms, but also capable of producing enough electricity compared to their size and cost. CorPower masters this difficulty with devices that are naturally transparent and protected in storms, and which produce about five times more energy per tonne of device than state-of-the-art solutions in the ocean.
Due to the harsh conditions at sea, the sensors used must be highly resistant to vibration and remotely accessible, both for control and monitoring purposes. CorPower uses EtherCAT, IO-Link masters, pressure sensors, temperature sensors, flow level sensors, humidity sensors and electronic circuit breakers. Everything is connected. Most of the data can be accessed via IO-Link, while moneo is used to set up the devices and analyse some of the data coming back.
