Mexico's Marersa Offers Wave Power to Region

Charles W. Thurston, Contributor
October 30, 2012 | 4 Comments

Mexico's Maremotrices de Energias Renovables (Marersa) is currently negotiating for the implantation of its wave power technology at sites in Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama and the Dominican Republic, according to Francisco Javier Carrion Cuellar, the director general of the company. Marersa is seeking patents for the technology which it developed to build its first three megawatt wave plant at Rosarita, in Baja California, about 15 miles south of Tijuana. The plant operates at close to 85 percent efficiency and was built for the equivalent cost of $2 million per megawatt, excluding the sea wall cost, he says.

Cuellar made the comments during the 19th Border Energy Forum, held in Sonora on October 22-24, organized by the Texas Land Office.

The Rosarita pilot wave plant was initially commissioned by Mexico's national electricity company, Comision Federal de Electricidad, for $5.4 million, and was constructed with the aid of Integragas Telcorz and Grupo Nuhe. The unit will be connected to CFE’s existing 900 MW gas-fired Rosarito power station by a 600-meter underground power line. Marersa sells power from the facility to CFE and to other private consumers, at 80 percent of the cost of CFE electricity, says Cuellar.

The basic Rosarita wave plant module is designed to convert wave motion by way of a set of floating hinged buoys that create hydraulic pressure in a closed oil-filled system, connected to an electrical generator. The system generator rotates at 1,200 revolutions per minute, Cuellar says. There are eight buoys in each of the six modules of the plant, which are mounted on a pre-existing sea wall on the town beach. In cases of very strong waves, the buoys are designed to move into a full upright position and remain stationary. Marersa also is negotiating with an Italian energy design company to convert the closed hydraulic system to a pure mechanical system, Cuellar notes.

Marersa is pursuing renewable technology in a variety of areas including biofuel, photovoltaics, solid waste treatment, water treatment, wind and battery storage. Among goals of the company is to develop electric car charging stations, says Cuellar. The company's technology has been reviewed under the United Nations Cleantech Challenge.

Another wave power project under more conceptual development in Mexico is by the Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education at Ensenada, Baja California (Cicese). The think tank has designed a three-pointed triangular floating platform that is attached twice to each of three points anchored to the sea floor, with each connecting arm moving independently, according to Rodger Evans, a principal researcher at the facility.

While Cicese has not yet built a prototype, it is in the process of developing a linear alternator to capture the mechanical motion of each of the six connecting arms, with the help of German researchers, Evans notes. The center currently has nine buoys off the Pacific coast of North America capturing wave data, and is in the process of creating a more detailed map of wave data for the region. The new map is expected to be 10 times more accurate than existing models, he notes.

4 Comments

Ken Higgs
October 31, 2012

Last portion of previous message, for Marsera:

......So he headed to the lab alone one Saturday morning where he wound a coil and connected it to magnets. After some experimentation with magnetic fields, the power-generating system seemed to work, but he was cautious. What seems to work at one point in a lab setting might not work under different circumstances.

The next step was to develop the device and give it a test run in the UBC parking lot. That is where the real eureka moment occurred.

"We had already demonstrated it in the laboratory but when you actually see a real electric vehicle charged this way, it just makes it seem more real," Whitehead said.

About eight people on campus had a hand in the project including a physics student, lab staff and the university's industry development office.

He sees the device as having great potential. "It's very hard to measure these things but it looks like it may be the best way to charge electric cars so that is obviously a very big market."

He thinks it will be less expensive than any other method of wirelessly transferring power.

But don't expect these devices to be landing any time soon in your neighbourhood hardware store. "The time it takes to develop a product to the point that it can be commercially employed is many years," he said.

He also sees the technology being used in medical devices, which was his original idea. A patient with a pacemaker, for example, might pay a visit to a doctor's office to have it charged or a patient with an artificial heart might have the charging device built into a chair or bed.

A patent for the technology has been filed through the university industry liaison office. The normal process is for the patent to be assigned or licensed to one or more companies that would develop the product and sell it.

yzacharias@vancouversun.com

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/researchers+develop+wireless+recharging+station+electric+cars/74550

Ken Higgs
October 31, 2012

METRO VANCOUVER -- University of British Columbia researchers have developed a wireless charging device for electric cars that could get more of these vehicles on the road.

The technology has been successfully tested on UBC service vehicles and given rave reviews by drivers who no longer have to wrestle with cords and sockets in often cramped conditions and bad weather.

Instead, all they have to do is drive up to one of the four charging devices installed at UBC's building operations lot and park. The car fully recharges in four hours, roughly the same amount of time it takes with an electrical outlet. It is then good to go for eight hours.

The system can withstand all kinds of weather.

The device was developed by a team led by UBC physics Prof. Lorne Whitehead who were originally working on a system that would work with medical devices such as implanted pacemakers.

"The car opportunity came to light as maybe more exciting commercially in the shorter term," Whitehead, who specializes in the applied use of electric and magnetic fields, said in an interview.

This new system uses remote magnetic gears to overcome the concern with previous wireless systems about potential health effects on humans from high power and high frequency electromagnetic fields.

The system developed at UBC operates at a frequency 100 times lower than other wireless systems and with negligible exposed electric fields.

Eliminating radio waves, the system uses a rotating base magnet driven by electricity and a second located within the car. The base gear remotely spins the in-car gear which in turn generates power to charge the battery.

The idea for the device came to light as so many do — through what Whitehead described as a "thought experiment" where scientists think about what might happen in certain situations.

Francisco Carrion
October 31, 2012

Dear Charles, just two comments:

My last name is Carrion instead of Cuellar, and second, we are developing a system that allows electric or any car to selfgenerate energy from the tires, not charging stations. Maybe I did not explain myself very good.

Thank you for your interest and for a very good comment.

Liz Kirchner
October 31, 2012

Let us know more about linking the Rosarita plant to the grid. Will energy cross the border? An interesting export.
Thanks,
Liz Kirchner, AIBS, Northern Virginia

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Charles Thurston

Charles W. Thurston is a journalist who specializes in renewable energy, from finance to technological processes. He has been active in the industry for over 25 years, living and working in locations ranging from Brazil to Papua New Guinea...