On July 18, 2017, the “Sharp Eagle Offshore Mobile Wave Energy Converter Platform” independently developed by Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion (GIEC) of Chinese Academy of Sciences received power performance assessment approval certificate from Bureau Veritas (BV), France, a global leader in Testing, Inspection and Certification (TIC).

Sharp Eagle is a new type of wave energy converter (WEC) with independent intellectual property rights owned by GIEC. It has been put into operation for two years and supplied electricity to Dawanshan Island. A ten day sea trial showed that the average wave-to-wire efficiency is 24%, which is now the highest record in the world.

The research group led by Prof. YOU Yage at GIEC has devoted to wave energy study for almost 40 years. They are now working hard to optimize the design of Sharp Eagle, and hope to increase its output while decreasing its cost. Sharp Eagle nowadays has developed a multi-power complementary system with 200 kW wave power, 50 kW PV, batteries, inverters, data acquisition, monitoring equipment and satellite transmission.

Started from 2011, Sharp Eagle has experienced three generations of prototypes and finally evolved into its current style. Its four wave energy absorbers are symmetrically mounted on a semi-submersible platform, and two independent sets of hydraulic system are equipped for parallel working, making Sharp Eagle mobile, stable, efficient, reliable and maintainable.

Sharp Eagle has been approved by BV with respect to the classification as per Bureau Veritas Rules for the Classification of the Technical Specification IEC/TS 62600-100, based on the Power Performance Assessment provided at this stage.

Sharp Eagle is of 36 meters long, 24 meters wide and 16 meters high. By the semi-submersible barge, it can be easily floated up on the water surface, or to be towed and anchor like a barge, which facilitates transportation and maintenance. When the device arrives at its location, it can be easily semi-submerged and moored and functioned as a generation equipment.