The news comes shortly after CorPower revealed plans for a new 16 MEUR (USD18.1m) R&D, Manufacturing and Service Centre in Viana do Castelo, Portugal, becoming a core focus for the firm’s pioneering HiWave-5 Project with a showcase pilot wave farm planned in Aguçadoura.
Mr Silva will be overseeing CorPower’s activities in Portugal, including composite hull development, manufacturing and assembly of WECs (Wave Energy Converters) as well as operations to install and maintain wave arrays offshore.
He brings a wealth of experience developing from leading advanced engineering organizations, taking products from prototyping to large volume manufacturing. His most recent position involved extensive composite design and manufacturing as plant manager of the Enercon blade factory in Viana do Castelo.
“I’m truly excited to be part of this project to firmly establish wave power as a solid and reliable renewable energy investment option,” said Mr Silva. “Our mission is to build a world-class knowledge centre in Viana for the development and mass fabrication of WECs. We are currently laying the foundations for future high-volume operations. This involves collecting substantial amounts of data to ‘prove’ our technology, with an overall aim of successfully completing the demonstration phase with HiWave-5 with a competitive and certified product. Following this, we plan to expand our fabrication and service capacity to be prepared for widescale supply of our new generation WECs.”
“I was attracted to Corpower because of its ground-breaking technology, having developed a highly effective product – producing five times more electricity per ton than other known wave technology. The project is further supported by a rigorous, methodical and internationally recognised development approach which places it in pole position to deliver commercially viable WECs.
“Portugal is also in a strong position to capitalise on wave energy due to decades of investment and research. Wave energy has been a research focus since the 1970s and contributed heavily to wider European efforts with technical papers, R&D projects and studies. This sector will soon reach maturity and is set to play a fundamental role in Portugal’s transition to 100% renewable energy, while providing a platform to drive exports, employment and long-term investment in supply chains.”
Corpower’s Head of People, Hanna Nordqvist said: “We are thrilled to have Miguel on the team. He brings extensive experience both on a technical and managerial level. His knowledge of emerging technologies includes more than a decade dedicated to the wind energy sector. In this field he was responsible for starting and optimizing manufacturing and assembly operations for both on-shore and off-shore wind turbines. Miguel brings strong international experience from around the world including Germany, Portugal and India. I am confident he will play a key role in building our organization to ensure successful scale-up to of manufacturing capacity for commercial scale machines.”
Corpower Portugal plans to create 15 highly qualified engineering jobs in the next years, covering composite design and manufacturing, mechanical, electrical, control and marine operations.
– ENDS-
For more information:
www.corpowerocean.com / info@corpowerocean.com
Download press release as pdf: English / Portuguese
Media Contact: Sam Pinnington sam@pressing.co Tel: +44 (0)7919 010092.
A Press kit with background information and high-resolution images can be found here.
About CorPower Ocean
CorPower Ocean brings to market, a new class of high efficiency Wave Energy Converters (WECs) enabling robust and cost-effective harvesting of electricity from ocean waves. The design principle is inspired by the pumping principles of the human heart and offers five times more energy per ton of device compared to previously known technologies, allowing a large amount of energy to be harvested using a small and low-cost device. The CorPower WEC’s unique ability to become transparent to incoming waves provides survivability for the WEC in storm conditions.
CorPower’s team includes 50 wave energy specialists from 13 countries with offices in Sweden, Portugal, Norway and Scotland. The company has broad backing across Europe, with funders including InnoEnergy, the European Commission, the Swedish and Scottish Governments, Midroc New Technology, ALMI Greentech fund and additional private investors.
Notes to editors:
What Makes CorPower technology unique?
The CorPower Wave Energy Converter (WEC) produces 5 times more electricity per ton (>10MWh/t) than any other known wave technology by combining:
- storm survivability and
- strongly amplified power capture in regular sea conditions.
The resonant WEC has four significant patented features:
- Pneumatic pretension system. Makes the device transparent to storm waves, and brings down the required materials by 40% compared to a conventional gravity balanced WEC, reducing CAPEX;
- WaveSpring phase control technology, providing 300% increase in Annual Energy Production (AEP) for a given buoy size.
- Cascade gearbox technology, enabling robust conversion of the amplified linear motion into rotation with low losses.
- Composite hull technology, eliminating corrosion issues from salt water and provides long lifetime.
CorPower WECs can harvest the same amount of Annual Energy from a buoy with 1/10 volume compared to conventional point absorber WEC [1]. By comparison, a 300kW CorPower WEC has a size of 9x18m and weighs 60 tonnes, where other wave devices may have dimensions of 100s’ of meters and several thousand tonnes for the same capacity. Getting large amounts of electricity from a small device significantly reduces CAPEX. The compact lightweight devices are also less costly to transport, install and service, bringing down OPEX.
Our structured five-stage product verification program is recognized as best practice in the sector.
[1] Heaving buoys, point absorbers and arrays, J. Falnes, J. Hals, 2011.
