Vicor, SeaPower marine energy harvesting system
Providing compact, high-efficiency, high-density power solutions
Efficient energy transfer, high-bandwidth remote communication support


Vicor announced on the 27th that it has supplied power conversion solutions to the Autonomous Offshore Power System (AOPS) of Columbia Power Technologies (C-Power), a company specializing in marine energy systems. The C-Power AOPS captures wave energy and converts it into electricity for various applications such as offshore oil and gas exploration and production, marine carbon sequestration, oceanographic research, aquaculture, and homeland defense.

Unlike other companies pursuing large-scale megawatt systems, SeaPower is focusing on kilowatt-class remote power systems for maritime data communications through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)’s Wave Energy Buoy System (WEBS) project. SeaPower’s AOPS is an autonomous and eco-friendly marine power source that can double the communication conduit length compared to other solutions.

The latest Sea Power AOPS platform, 'SeaRay', captures 10 to 1 megawatt of energy from waves. To achieve its goals within a narrow power range, SeaPower designed the Sea-Ray AOPS using Vicor's power conversion technology, which has a high power-to-weight ratio. This design features a small footprint, enhancing mobility and commercial viability while lowering distribution costs.

Joe Prudell, Senior Electrical Engineer at SeaPower R&D, stated, “To convert power pulses from waves into a semi-stable DC bus, a wide range of DC-DC solutions capable of controlling and regulating them are required,” adding, “We were able to accomplish this at various power levels using Vicor’s power modules and gained significant advantages.”

Sea Ray transmits events occurring at sea to the cloud in real time through autonomous remote data communication. While existing marine data collection systems had limited scope and frequency, Sea Ray supports real-time data delivery using cellular networks and satellites. This enables the collection and provision of more data more frequently.

The Vicor power system design team provided a power conversion solution and an energy storage device charger system with an input range of 30:1 to harmonize ocean wave energy characteristics with the demanding power conversion requirements of Sea Ray. These devices received external control signals from the Sea Power system and met power conversion requirements in real time.

SeaRay's scalable power design utilizes PRM™ regulator modules equipped with Vicor's BCM® fixed-ratio bus converters and multi-stage discrete converters to efficiently convert unpredictable wave energy caused by turbulence, providing controlled power. Through this, SeaPower has increased the conversion efficiency of the SeaRay design from 85% to 94%.

Vicor's DC-DC converters enable SeaRay to generate constant currents of various power levels while converting wave power pulses into various DC buses, providing essential control functions for SeaPower. Additionally, the power conversion topology used in Vicor modules minimizes built-in electromagnetic interference and noise from SeaRay that can reduce sensor measurement accuracy.