Anaconda wave energy converter shows its stuff

Checkmate Seaenergy this week gave a media demonstration of its Anaconda Wave Energy Converter. Held at the QinetiQ Haslar Marine Technology Park in Gosport, the event also aimed to give the investment community the opportunity meet the  team behind the project.

According to the UK-based Checkmate, part of the Checkmate Group, the Anaconda has the potential to reduce UK carbon dioxide emissions by millions of tonnes, helping the Government reach its target of a 34-per cent reduction by 2020.

The firm’s energy converter is essentially a large, water-filled and distensible rubber tube that floats just below the sea’s surface at right angles to the waves. Those help to generate bulge waves within the tube that pass through “like a pulse in an artery, gathering energy from the sea wave as it goes.” That energy then helps to drive a turbine at the end of the tube.