The SR2 project: A Switched Reluctance Generator in an OWC-type Ocean Wave Energy Converter System: Part 2 SRG Design and Build

The SR2 Project demonstrates the viability of low-speed switched-reluctance generator (SRG) technology in marine renewable energy conversion systems. Begun in 2017 with support from Waveram Ltd, a campus company within the School of Engineering, Trinity College Dublin [1], and funded by an Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation grant, it follows the success of the LinGen project, a collaboration between IT Blanchardstown and Wavebob Ltd., which finished in 2012.
A lab-scale prototype SRG and test rig were designed, built and installed on the Blanchardstown campus at TU Dublin. The prototype was developed to TRL4 (Technology validated in lab), and mimics the behaviour of a full-scale SRG in a simulated OWC-WEC device in a wild-speed, irregular ocean wave environment.
A simulation software suite was also developed in MATLAB/Simulink to aid in the design of the lab-scale SRG and rig, and also to simulate full-scale OWC-WEC systems in irregular wave climates at sea.