The Ocean Grazer is a conceptual energy collection platform, projected to house several renewable energy generation modules, including wave energy, solar energy and wind energy. The development of the Ocean Grazer platform has been carried out by the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.[1]
The concept of the platform is currently on its version 3.0[2] centering on the modular design as opposed to the massiveness of the platform, as in the previous concepts. The majority of the harvested energy for all concepts is to be delivered by a wave energy converter that uses the motion of ocean surface waves to generate electrical energy[3]
The operating principle of the Ocean Grazer energy converter is to store potential energy by creating a hydraulic head, due to the differences in pressure between two reservoirs. All three concepts rely on this principle to function. The hydraulic head is created by circulating internal fluid from the lower to the upper reservoir via a novel hydro-mechanical power take off system,[3] composed of distributed and coupled floaters. Each floater is linked to a separate multi-piston pumping system, consisting of differently sized pistons that regulate the amount of pumped fluid and that can be adapted to the surface wave conditions.[4] Check valve systems are needed to minimize the back flow when the pistons return to their resting position.[3][5] Lastly, similar to a hydroelectric plant, once enough fluid has been stored in the upper reservoir it can be circulated through a turbine system to generate electrical energy.
There are advantages in using a device like the Ocean Grazer energy converter, such as:
There are also disadvantages in using a device like the Ocean Grazer energy converter, namely: