Product Design Engineering BSc student Phoebe Bamford's final year project is about piezo-panels, a new form of wave power, which facilitates the transfer of energy from a wave’s inertia into usable power, through piezoelectric crystals.
Recent UK studies show that fossil fuels will be depleted before renewable alternatives can account for 100% of the country's electricity demands. Over the last 15 years, development in the marine energy sector has been less than 3% of wind and solar power combined, which initiated the motivation for the project.
Most marine energy generators have a selection of issues consisting of:
- inefficiency (due to the use of turbines),
- maintenance difficulties,
- lack of self-contained energy storage,
- and an ill-suited design for the harsh environment.
POW energy combats these points by using piezoelectric crystals to convert the impact force of a wave into a short burst of electricity. As the product is attached onshore, directly to ocean facing cliffs, which are constantly exposed to water, the electricity produced can be supplied directly to the National Grid.
Tidal-based generation methods are preferable compared to other current sustainable resources as they are consistent and will become ever more so with the rising sea levels due to global warming. A secondary consequence of this design is its potential to reduce coastal erosion by dampening the effects of waves, protecting the natural cliff face and maintaining their structural integrity.