The SURF-WEC, short for Small Underwater Research Flap Wave Energy Converter, moved from the laboratory to the ocean for the first time off the Makai Research Pier on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. The project, carried out by National Laboratory of the Rockies in cooperation with the University of Hawaii at Manoa, aims to test a small device for converting wave motion into electricity while making its design, data, and lessons learned openly available.
This step comes in a field where open-water experiments remain limited compared with the scale of theoretical research and modeling conducted over past decades. According to the researchers, the lack of actual deployments, along with the unavailability of data from some experiments, hinders understanding of marine energy device performance and makes it difficult to move from models to technologies that can be commercially scaled.
How Does the Device Work?
SURF-WEC consists of a floating flap installed near the shore, approximately the size of a large screen. The flap moves back and forth as waves pass, like a door rotating around its hinges, thereby driving a closed hydraulic system that pumps fluid and gradually increases its pressure. When a specified pressure is reached, it is used to turn an engine connected to an electric generator.
The device’s main research advantage is the ability to remotely adjust its response to waves. The team can switch between a passive mode that does not alter its response according to conditions and an active mode that adapts to changing waves in real time. Models indicate that active operation may capture more energy, but it adds losses resulting from operating the sensors, control systems, and adjustment mechanisms themselves.
From Modeling to Marine Testing
The project took two years of modeling, construction, testing, and validation inside National Laboratory of the Rockies laboratories. The researchers used tools such as WEC-Sim to simulate flap and wave motion, and they also tested the hydraulic energy-conversion system using an electric actuator that simulated wave motion in a controlled environment.
The laboratory also developed the MODAQ 2.0 platform to monitor performance, control the device, and collect data. After testing the components in the laboratory, the system was isolated and reinforced to protect it from marine environmental conditions, then shipped to Hawaii for assembly, deployment, and connection to the island’s shore.
Before deployment, the team faced a strong Kona storm heading toward Oahu, with winds and waves exceeding what historical data had predicted. The researchers therefore secured only the frame and waited for the storm to pass, then reran the simulations using real-time data from nearby buoys. Two days later, they completed assembling and securing the device to the seafloor, while routing the cables to the MODAQ 2.0 platform on shore.
Why Does This News Matter?
The team confirmed that electricity reached the system after it was secured, demonstrating the initial transition from laboratory design to operation at sea, but it does not yet constitute evidence of commercial viability or sustained large-scale production. SURF-WEC was designed primarily as a low-barrier research platform for generating data that researchers and industry can build upon.
More than five months after its deployment, the team plans to keep the device in the water for up to a year, while providing a live data feed and publishing a publicly available final report. The results will help compare active and passive operation, evaluate losses associated with control, and understand the performance of the energy system under actual sea conditions. How long the device will remain in the water and how much electricity it can produce over the long term remain open questions that continued testing will determine.
The project is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office, while the collaboration between the laboratory and the university brought together expertise in wave modeling, control, hydraulic engineering, and marine installation.