Ocean Grazer Project

So far, more than 60 Bachelor and 50 Master students worked on the project mainly from the programs of Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) and Mechanical Engineering (ME), as well as 3 PhD students (1 graduated) and 3 postdoctoral researchers (2 finished). Furthermore, our team has participated in the recently completed Developing Offshore Storage and Transport Alternatives project (DOSTA, NWO) and the ongoing Offshore Electricity Storage Technology Research project (OESTER, RvO).

As a result also of the launch of a spin-off company that aimed to commercialize the energy storage part of the concept (Ocean Grazer BV, June 2018-June 2025), our team was nominated for the 2021 Huibregtsenprijs and won the inaugural 2020 Ben Feringa Impact Award of the University of Groningen. We thank the university for this recognition.

Research within the Ocean Grazer project, aiming to develop novel renewable energy harvesting and storage technologies, is led by Prof. Antonis I. Vakis and, until his retirement in March 2025, Drs Wout Prins, the inventor of the original concept, as well as Prof. Bayu Jayawardhana. Our technology aims to exploit the unused potential of offshore renewable energy by developing innovative solutions that improve the efficiency of offshore wind farms and increase the energy yield per square kilometer. This potential can be unlocked by combining various renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and wave energy at a given deployment location, within hybrid devices that also feature on-site energy storage. Our long-term goal is to bring wave power to maturity via synergy with existing technologies and the smart sharing of infrastructure. The value of offshore energy sources can be increased considerably if the output can be made controllable and thus predictable: unique storage and wave control will coordinate the energy optimization processes within hybrid energy farms to dispatch energy in an optimal way, either directly to the electricity grid or in Power-to-Liquids and other processes.

Our team has been successful in developing the fundamental knowledge and underlying models, validated via experimental prototypes, which are used to realize our novel energy harvesting and storage technologies. For the former, our emphasis has been on dense wave energy converter arrays in combination with offshore wind. For the latter, we have expanded our scope to include techno-financial, environmental and other considerations since the participation in electricity markets can be an important source of revenue for such storage systems, in addition to offering peak shaving and congestion management.

Ocean Grazer team

Prof. Antonis I. Vakis
Prof. Bayu Jayawardhana
Drs W.A. Prins

Links

List of past projects (including non-Ocean Grazer topics)

List of publications (including on non-Ocean Grazer topics)

List of press/media coverage