PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT OF ELECTRIC POWER GENERATION FOR OSCILLATING WATER COLUMN (OWC) WAVE ENERGY CONVERTER

Today’s energy challenges require us to explore alternatives which are clean, environment friendly, renewable and prove a replacement for carbon fuels. Ocean covers the surface of planet above 70 percent and ocean waves have a huge potential to fulfil the existing demand of energy. The conversion of available mechanical energy of waves into electrical energy mainly is based on three stages; primary stage includes Wave Energy Converter (WEC), which converts mechanical energy into aerodynamic energy, secondary stage is based on Power Take-off (PTO) mechanism, which converts aerodynamic energy into electrical energy varies according to the nature of WEC. The tertiary stage includes power electronics in order to provide signal conditioning compatible with grid.