IIT-M researchers develop device to generate electricity from sea waves

Researchers with the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) have developed a device that generates electricity from sea waves and deployed it off the Thoothukudi coast in the second week of November as part of its trial exercise.

The Ocean Wave Energy Converter device called Sindhuja-I, will help the country achieve its climate change-related goals of generating 500 GW of electricity by 2030 through renewable energy. Researchers deployed the device at a location about 6 KM off the coast of Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu, at a location with a depth of 20 metres in the second week of November.

The system has a floating buoy, a spar, and an electrical module and the buoy moves up and down as the wave moves up and down. In the present design, a balloon-like system called a ‘buoy’ has a central hole that allows a long rod called spar to pass through it.

With an ambitious target of generating 1MW of power from ocean waves in the next three years, the device will be deployed in offshore locations that require reliable electricity and communication either by supplying electric power to payloads that are integrated directly in or on the device or located in its vicinity as on the seabed and in the water column.

The targeted stakeholders are the oil and gas, defence and security installations and communication sectors, the IIT-M said, adding that the success of this project will help fulfil several objectives such as the UN Ocean decade and sustainable development goals.

Led by IIT-M faculty Prof. Abdus Samad, who has been working for over a decade on wave energy, the researchers established a state-of-the-art ‘Wave Energy and Fluids Engineering Laboratory’ (WEFEL) and designed and tested a scaled-down model.

The lab is also researching other applications for this technology such as producing power for smaller devices for the ocean like navigational buoys and data buoys, among others.

“India has a 7,500 km long coastline capable of producing 54 GW of power, satisfying a substantial amount of the country’s energy requirement. Seawater stores tidal, wave and Ocean thermal energy. Among them, the harnessing of 40GW wave energy is possible in India,” Samad said.

The project received funding support through ‘Innovative Research Project’ of IIT Madras, TBI-KIET under DST Nidhi-Prayas Scheme and Australian Alumni Grant Scheme 2022 by Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australian Government.

IIT Madras partnered with a start-up Virya Paramita Energy (VPE) Pvt. Ltd., and Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology (MNNIT) Allahabad, for this test.

The electrical storage system was designed by GKC Institute of Engineering and Technology and MCKV Institute of Engineering, West Bengal. Waterfront Engineering and Infrastructure Pvt Ltd assisted in deploying the system in the Ocean.