In September 2012, AZURA was selected by the US Department of Energy (DOE) via a competitive process to conduct a demonstration project at the US Navy’s grid-connected 30 meter Wave Energy Test Site (WETS) located at the Marine Corps Base Hawai’i (MCBH) on Oahu. The demonstration project at the Navy’s WETS is a collaboration between NWEI, Naval Facilities Engineering Command Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center (NAVFAC EXWC), University of Hawaii’s Hawaii National Marine Renewable Energy Center (HNMREC) and the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

In preparation for the initial WETS demonstration project,  the Azura prototype was modified based on the lessons learned from the early 2012 pilot project. The modified device included upgrades to the hydraulic system to increase energy capture, improve reliability and reduce cost. The hardware upgrades also allowed the testing and evaluation of advanced control algorithms.

The Azura device was deployed at WETS in May 2015 with continuous testing for a period of one year. WETS is grid-connected and also includes a high-bandwidth fiber optic connection to shore. This facilitated the testing and evaluation of different control algorithms without the need to physically access the device.

Watch the deployment video to learn more