A team from the University of Hawai‘i took first place against 14 other teams in the recently concluded Marine Energy Collegiate Competition. The competition, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technology Office and administered by the National Renewable Energy Lab, challenged teams to devise a technical concept based on marine energy as applied to the blue economy, as well as a business plan to advance their concept to market.
The UH team was comprised of graduate students from the Ocean and Resources Engineering Department in the School of Ocean and Earth Sciences and Technology and from the College of Engineering and involved faculty from those departments, was mentored by HNEI’s Patrick Cross, who oversees HNEI’s involvement in marine energy, including supporting the U.S. Navy’s Wave Energy Test Site (WETS).
The UH team developed their concept around a wave energy converter to supply power to autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), extending their missions without reliance on expensive shipboard operations. Further information on the competition, and the UH winning entry, can be found in these two announcements:
› UH News announcement: https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2020/07/30/underwater-vehicle-charging-station/
› DOE’s announcement: https://www.energy.gov/eere/articles/energy-department-announces-2020-marine-energy-collegiate-competition-winning-teams
