OCGen Module Mooring Project

Abstract

Ocean Renewable Power Company's OCGen Module Mooring Project provided an extensive research, design, development, testing and data collection effort and analysis conducted with respect to a positively buoyant, submerged MHK device secured to the seabed using a tensioned mooring system. Different analytic tools were evaluated for their utility in the design of submerged systems and their moorings. Deployment and testing of a prototype OCGen® system provided significant data related to mooring line loads and system attitude and station keeping. Mooring line loads were measured in situ and reported against flow speeds. The Project made a significant step in the development of designs, methodologies and practices related to floating and mooring of marine hydrokinetic (MHK) devices. Importantly for Ocean Renewable Power Company, the Project provided a sound basis for advancing a technically and commercially viable OCGen® Power System. The OCGen® Power System is unique in the MHK industry and, in itself, offers distinct advantages of MHK devices that are secured to the seabed using fixed structural frames. Foremost among these advantages are capital and operating cost reductions and increased power extraction by allowing the device to be placed at the most energetic level of the water column.