Ocean tank,

Towing tank tests for the FARWIND project

Testing has been carried out in the Centrale Nantes towing tank to characterize a CRUISING hydrogenerator, as part of EMO (LHEEA) team's work on the FARWIND project.

on February 25, 2020

The FARWIND project aims to explore the feasibility of producing renewable fuel from wind resources on the high seas. The concept is based on energy ships - a new technology. An energy ship is an autonomous sailing vessel, with a hydrogenerator attached beneath the vessel's hull. The wind propels the vessel, and the induced speed-current is converted into electricity by the hydrogenerator. Electricity is converted into an energy carrier (e.g. hydrogen) and then passed on to consumers.

Watt&Sea took part in the characterization of a CRUISING hydrogenerator in the towing tank at Centrale Nantes in February 2020. Watt&Sea has been designing, manufacturing and marketing a new generation of hydrogenerators since 2009. Their objective is to provide a self-sufficient energy solution for cruise and pleasure craft to meet their energy needs on board.

This hydrogenerator is used to produce energy on the FARWIND demonstrator. The purpose of these tests was to simultaneously measure the power developed as well as the drag under different speed conditions and with several forms of propellers in order to best characterize the system before the offshore testing. The towing tank allows testing at speeds up to 8m / s and measure the drag in ideal conditions.