Investor Presentaiton

Energies 2019, 12, 3658 24 of 37 4.2. Deployments in Brazil The first deployment of an ocean renewable energy converter in Brazil occurred in 1934 when the French engineer Georges Claude used an ocean thermal energy source to produce ice for the residents of Rio de Janeiro. His plant ran into problems and stopped working off the coast of Rio de Janeiro due to fatigue of its long intake tubes [184]. Studies associated with ocean renewable energy in Brazil began in 2001 at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), focusing on wave and tidal energy. Some other universities have also started working in this field, such as the Federal University of Maranhão (UFMA), the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), the Federal University of Pará (UFPA), and the Federal University of Itajubá (UNIFEI). There are three main ocean renewable energy projects being carried out in Brazil with different technology readiness levels. The first one is the COPPE (The Alberto Luiz Coimbra Institute for Graduate Studies and Research in Engineering) hyperbaric wave converter developed by the UFRJ, which has reached the prototype stage. A full-scale single device of the technology was installed in 2011 in Pecém port of Ceará state located in the northeast of Brazil. The device was decommissioned after 6 months of operation due to the port extension project. The second project is a nearshore wave energy converter, also developed by the UFRJ, which will be installed in relatively shallow water (water depth of 25-30 m) off the Rio de Janeiro coast. The technology is at the R&D stage and is undergoing medium-scale laboratory tests. The last project is the tidal range project of the Bacanga River estuary located in São Luís of Maranhão state in North Brazil. Although the discussion about the tidal energy extraction in this region is relatively old, the project is still at an early stage of development as it is waiting for finance. The following sections describe the characteristics and statuses of the mentioned projects. 4.2.1. COPPE Hyperbaric Wave Converter As illustrated in Figure 18, this device is composed of a floating body connected to the pumping modules, a hydrodynamic accumulator, a hyperbaric chamber, and a generating unit. The vertical motion of the floating body due to the wave body interactions drives the pump actuator which displaces the water inside the closed circuit to a hydro-pneumatic accumulator. The accumulator is connected to a hyperbaric chamber, which has previously been pressurized. Then, the pressurized water drives a hydraulic turbine coupled to an electrical generator. The hyperbaric chamber works as an energy storage system, which smooth the power fluctuations due to the oscillatory nature of sea waves. The applied pressure is in the range of 250-400 m of water column (m.wc) [185]. Sea wave Floating body Hyperbaric chamber Lever arm Support platform Hydropneumatic accumulator Hydraulic pump Water recirculation Electric generator Pelton turbine Figure 18. A schematic of the COPPE/UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) hyperbaric wave converter [185]. Additionally, a discrete control scheme was applied to the system to improve power production by adjusting the PTO parameters without wave measurement [186]. The experimental tests were

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