POWER September 2016 - 15

OPT are also reportedly collaborating to
develop and test an advanced control algorithm
to assess increased ocean wave
energy capture and electric power generation
for potential customers in Japan and
other Asian nations.
Meanwhile, OPT said in a June 2016
statement that it will target a variety of
markets over the next five years. Within
the next two years, the PB3 PowerBuoy
could snag a sizable share of the oceanographic
and meteorological data market,
it projected, but it will also seek
customers in the oil and gas, defense
and security, offshore wind, and communications
sectors.
Over the next five years, the company
also plans to substantially boost
the technology's maturation and commercialization.
A second-generation PB3
model in the works could include a new,
modular high-efficiency energy storage
system. A future third-generation model
would feature a more advanced and
lighter hull design for improved power
generation, the company said. That
would be followed by the PB15-Gen1,
which
OPT
envisions
could
generate
more than 15 kW peak payload power.
By 2020, it wants to commercialize the
PBX model, which would use advanced
hydro-dynamics, energy storage, and
controls.
OSU Develops OpenSource
Tool to Assess
Run-of-River Resource
Potential
A new assessment tool developed by
engineers at Oregon State University
(OSU) could
allow
people, agencies,
and communities interested in developing
small-scale hydropower plants
in remote places to easily and accurately
assess whether a potential project
would meet their current and future
energy needs.
The free, open-source computer modeling
package dubbed the Hydropower
Potential Assessment Tool (HPAT) allows
developers of hydro plants of less than 30
MW to assess historic and projected future
hydro resource potential at single locations
or over larger study regions.
HPAT implements a fully distributed
streamflow model, which is coupled to a
digital elevation model to assess hydropower
resource potential. All inputs to
HPAT are globally available, except for
streamflow observations necessary for
calibration.
According to Kendra Sharp, the Richard
and Gretchen Evans professor in humanitarian
engineering at the OSU College of
Engineering, the tool could have a " special
value " for engineers or policy makers
contemplating small hydro in some remote,
mountainous regions, where electricity
is often scarce or unavailable. " The
strength of this system is that it will be
simple for people to use, and it's pretty
accurate even though it can work with
limited data on the ground, " she said.
Sharp and OSU Associate Professor of
Coastal and Ocean Engineering David Hill
collaborated with Thomas Mosier, who developed
the software program as a graduate
student at OSU. The new technology
was then field-tested at a 5-MW smallscale
hydro plant built in the early 1980s
on Falls Creek in the Cascade Range (Figure
5).
That demonstration's findings were
published in the November 2016 issue of
the journal Renewable Energy. Notably, the
researchers found at the Falls Creek facility
that the timing of peak streamflow will
5. To develop or not develop? Small-scale hydropower systems have a huge-butuntapped
potential in many areas around the world. New free computer modeling software
developed by engineers at Oregon State University (OSU) would allow developers to assess
historic and projected future hydro resource potential at single locations or over larger study
regions, allowing them to make better decisions. This image shows a model and a small-scale
working system tested in central Oregon in the Cascade Range. Courtesy: OSU
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POWER September 2016

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