Progress:

Progress-to-Date

SurfPower was created by Seawood Designs in 2003
A U.S. patent application was filed in 2004
U.S. patent 7,042,112 B2 issued Spring 2005
June 2005 – a 1:22 scale model of the pontoon was tested in Lake Huron, Ontario Canada; the pontoon behaved as anticipated. The test rig provided a means to record mechanical energy recovery from the waves over extended periods (up to one hour); the maximum power in one run exceeded 4W – obviously a trivial amount of power, however this is equivalent to 321 kW that would be delivered to the grid for a full sized SurfPower pontoon, operating in 5-12 foot waves.
July 2005, a patent application was filed in the United Kingdom
September 2009, extensive dynamic computer modelling of SurfPower was undertaken by Dynamic Systems Analysis (enabled by NRC-IRAP funding)
October 2009, United Kingdom patent, GB2428747 was issued
Summer 2009 - A preliminary design of all pump components was created as a computer solid model.

Conduct wave tank trials with a 1:10 linear scale model (much larger than the Lake Huron model). The test pontoon will be 2.4 meters long. The National Research Council (Institute of Ocean Technology) will undertake the testing in their wave basin. Testing is scheduled to commence in April, 2010. The model will incorporate all of the components required in a full scale system. It will pump water under controlled pressure to simulate operation pumping to a collection main. Testing will more accurately determine energy recovery from a range of representative wave heights and confirm system dynamic behaviour when the pontoon is overtopped by storm waves. Performance data will also be provided to help validate computer modelling completed to date.
Continue with computer modelling to further investigate strategies designed to improve energy recovery and survival in breaking waves.
Design, build, and test a full scale pontoon/pump for 12 months to establish energy recovery performance and highlight any operational/maintainability issues. Completion of this test program will lead to construction of full commercial systems with a high level of confidence.