AquaGen has patented a new technology known as RigDrive which short-cuts the traditional wave energy commercialisation market by providing access to the lucrative oil and gas market. The technology is a retrofittable module which taps into the potential energy of an existing rig and transforms it from an energy consuming to an energy generating product. This means that the rig itself becomes an energy absorber as it moves with the waves.
“This technology represents the first wave energy product to tap into existing infrastructure to bring wave energy into the short term commercial market” said AquaGen CEO Nick Boyd. “I think that this has to be the new paradigm for wave energy – instead of planning for capital intensive, large scale, long term payback wave farms, wave energy needs to develop technologies which build on existing subsea infrastructure to enable a short term investor to come in and make a profit.”
Mr Boyd went on to say that the revenue from RigDrive will be re-invested in the development of technologies such as SurgeDrive, the company’s large scale wave farm technology which he believes is a much better strategy for investors and for the company as a solid commercial business.
AquaGen Director Martin Buden said that the technology seems like an oxymoron at first as the company is leveraging it from a non-sustainable industry.
“Creating a clean sustainable energy industry is about transitioning from carbon-based energy to clean energy” he added. “It cannot happen without the massive leverage available through such an industry.”
Mr Buden sees the RigDrive as the key to a lucrative market, with over 400 floating oil rigs in operation worldwide, each using megawatts of electricity for months at a time. They normally burn diesel for on-board electricity needs and require supply vessels for refuelling.
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Nice technology .....its iconoclast technology..hope its help in future to solve energy problem..
