Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory outfitted the SeaRAY autonomous offshore power system with a customized Modular Ocean Data Acquisition system, which will allow handlers to control the device from afar and collect real-time data.
Water Power Technologies Office
March 9, 2022
minute read time
Marine Energy Program
Foundational R&D
Project Name: C-Power’s SeaRAY Autonomous Offshore Power System Validation at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Project Team: C-Power (lead) and National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Lead Recipient Location: Charlottesville, Virginia, with work completed in Arvada, Colorado
Offshore work, like marine research and aquaculture, can require significant amounts of energy. Now, an autonomous, wave-powered, renewable energy device—called the SeaRAY autonomous offshore power system—could power a variety of offshore industries and missions and help protect the oceans and climate, too. To help prepare the C-Power-designed SeaRAY for its first ocean trial in Hawaii, researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory outfitted the device with a customized Modular Ocean Data Acquisition (MODAQ) system, which collects, stores, and transmits precise field data.
Originally designed to standardize and increase the quality and breadth of field data collection, the first MODAQ could do basic data acquisition and condition monitoring (meaning it kept track of how a wave energy device performed). SeaRAY’s MODAQ not only collects field data, but it also sends information to the cloud and connects to the web. That means handlers can monitor SeaRAY live, receive data on how a device is functioning, and even control those functions from afar.
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