Projects
From small to big we add value, experience and innovation to all projects.
Floating Subsystem Test Platform Concept
European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC)
EMEC are investigating options for deployment of a floating subsystem test platform (FSTP) for use by floating offshore wind technology developers. The scale-platform would enable at sea testing of a range of novel subsystem components such as monitoring equipment, mooring technologies, new materials, and many more.
Quoceant developed a Design Basis document for the FSTP to inform onward development. The work carried out with support from First Marine Solutions included OrcaFlex modelling to help inform the platform design choices, targeted user-engagement, pre-FEED to set-out the platfrom configuration and, finally, compilation of a Design Basis document setting out; design principals, site and environmental conditions, high-level functional requirements and applicable codes and standards for onward design.
The work was funded by the Interreg North West Europe AFLOWT project which aims to accelerate market update of floating offshore wind technology.
Image (credit EMEC)
OrcaFlex Analysis: Remote Data Collection
3D at Depth
Quoceant recently undertook a package of work to analyse the hydrodynamics of long tethers for multi-data collection autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) in deep water. The project was completed using OrcaFlex to simulate the effect of different tether lengths, and speeds, and investigated working assumptions to support 3D at Depth's ongoing technology development and operational activity.
3D at Depth specialises in subsea LiDAR laser and remote sensing technology and are active across energy, science, archaeological, and deep-sea mining sectors.
Image (credit 3D at Depth)
Engineering and Marine Operations Support
Marine Power Systems
Marine Power Systems (MPS) are developers of a flexible modular technology intended for the deployment of floating offshore wind at an industrial scale. Quoceant have been providing engineering support to MPS including input into the platform design and offshore installation systems. Our services have included a mixture of review, design, analysis, and simulation modelling work.
"Quoceant have a long history of working in marine renewables and have developed a skill set well suited to support the engineering advancements needed for floating offshore wind."
Graham Foster
Chairman and CTO, Marine Power Systems
Image (credit Marine Power Systems)
Numerical Modelling Support
SynchroStor
Quoceant have been contracted by thermal energy storage innovators, SynchroStor. Quoceant will work closely with SynchroStor engineers to develop a state-of-the-art physics and control whole-system model along with detailed models of the novel subsystems required to compress and expand a working fluid and transfer heat to and from the storage media.
SynchorStor are developing a patented Pumped Thermal Energy Storage (PTES) system aimed at meeting the changing needs of the grid system as it transitions to greener sources of energy generation
"...Selecting highly skilled sub-contractors is an important part of de-risking our programme. We are delighted to welcome Quoceant onboard to provide expertise in physics and control modelling."
Jacob Ahlqvist
Managing Director, SynchroStor
Image (credit SynchroStor)
Engineering Support
Moray West Offshore Wind Farm
Quoceant have been contracted by Ocean Winds to provide engineering support to the design of the Moray West offshore wind project to be built of the coast off Scotland, in the Moray Firth. The team at Quoceant are working with Ocean Winds on the design of temporary steel work structures for installation of the wind turbines and to provide general, third-party engineering support and analysis to the substructures for the 14.7MW wind turbines. Ocean Winds was created as a 50-50 joint venture in 2020 by EDP Renewables and ENGIE.
The work comes on the back of Quoceant's previous support to Moray East Offshore Wind Farm which commenced its first power export in June 2021. Moray West is aiming for first power export in 2024 and will be 882MW in capacity.
"Quoceant have provided engineering services to support Ocean Winds across both our Moray East and West projects. I've found the team to be highly knowledgeable in structural analysis and design. Responsive, professional and open - they have been straightforward to work with."
Teit Schoenberg
Ocean Winds
Image of monopiles (credit Moray East Offshore Wind Farm)
Quick Connection System
Minesto
Quoceant were contracted by Minesto to design a subsea quick connection system for use on their tidal kite technology. The design solution provides dual mechanical and electrical connection between the kite system and its bottom mounted foundation and subsea cable. Working alongside marine operations specialists, Inyanga Maritime, Quoceant took this project from concept through detailed design, procurement, qualification testing, build and operational support. The delivered subsea connection system is capable of repeated connection and disconnection operations, enabling recovery of the kite technology as desired for inspection and maintenance. Operation is quick and requires no diver interaction allowing the marine operations to be completed within short weather windows.
The quick connection system was successfully installed and operated on Minesto's flagship project in the Faroes Isles in 2020. Minesto ordered a second unit from Quoceant a year later.
Image (credit Minesto)
Third Party Structural Review
Moray East Offshore Wind Farm
Quoceant were contracted to provide structural engineering support of the foundation design of the 'Moray East' offshore wind turbines and offshore substations. Moray East is a 950MW wind farm located around 20km off the coast in the Outer Moray Firth, it will be Scotland's biggest offshore wind farm. Quoceant provided client-side expert engineering review services for the project developer, and advice in support of the substructure design, including review of the foundation design, grout interfaces, and fabrication process.
“Quoceant have an excellent knowledge of marine structures including expertise in the analysis and design of large fabrications. They have provided professional insight and diligence and I would highly recommend the engineering team.”
Ed Maycock
Head of Foundations and Substructures at Ocean Winds
Image (courtesy of Moray Offshore Renewables)
Q-Connect, Marine Quick Connector Development
Wave Energy Scotland
The 'Q-Connect' is a quick connection system being developed by Quoceant to provide combined mechanical and electrical connection to connect a marine renewable device to its mooring and subsea electrical infrastructure. The 'Q-Connect' is being designed to be adaptable to a range of different marine applications. The project has received funding from Wave Energy Scotland as part of their Quick Connection System development programme. The project is now nearing completion of stage 3 of this programme which includes qualification testing.
During the development process, Quoceant are working with project sub-contractors, EMEC, SMD and Inyanga Maritime to progress engineering design and commercial understanding. The long-term vision is to develop a product that has market appeal to a range of marine developers by satisfying their connection needs and being compatible with array scale deployments.
Read more on Wave Energy Scotland's website.
Power Take-Off Preliminary Design
Marine Power Systems
Quoceant have been awarded a stage 1 contract to support the design of Marine Power Systems (MPS)'s power take-off system.
MPS are a Welsh-based marine energy company developing the WaveSub wave energy device, and the DualSub technology that can simultaneously capture both wave and wind energy in a single machine – at large scale.
“Quoceant are a highly talented team with world leading expertise in wave energy power take-off systems and we are delighted to be working with them at MPS. By adopting proven principles and working with such an experienced team MPS is a significant step closer to a successfully proving our novel wave energy converter at large scale.”
Graham Foster
Chairman & CTO, MPS
Image (courtesy of MPS)
Design and Engineering Support
AWS Ocean Energy
Quoceant provided design support to AWS Ocean during their Wave Energy Scotland funded project to demonstrate their Waveswing technology. Quoceant’s involvement spanned all three stages of the project from feasibility assessment through concept optimisation and on to detailed design and demonstration. Quoceant led on aspects of the engineering and concept development work, FEED, and supported the risk and technical assessment activities. Our work has included a range input across PTO, environmental control, structural hull design, and availability analysis.
“Quoceant have unrivalled Wave Energy Converter design and at-sea operational experience, a combination that has been extremely valuable throughout our project.”
Simon Grey
Director at AWS Ocean Energy
Image (courtesy of AWS Ocean Energy, Photo credit Scapa Technical /Alfik Shorebase Services)
Concept Design
Orbital Marine Power
Building on Orbital’s SR2000, earlier generation machine, Quoceant worked with Orbital Marine Power to invent and develop new features to allow access to nacelles for maintenance and to reduce the cost of structures. A range of concept options were developed by Quoceant, supported by preliminary analysis and engineered costings, to allow selection for onward development and detailed design of the O2 machine by Orbital.
The Orbital O2 machine is a floating tidal energy converter. Its long hull structure has twin 1MW power generating nacelles at the end of retractable leg structures. It is currently deployed at EMEC, Orkney.
Image (courtesy of Orbital Marine Power)
Power Take-Off Development
Artemis Intelligent Power (now Danfoss)
Quoceant are partnered with Artemis Intelligent Power in an innovative project to develop a hydraulic power take-off system, called ‘Quantor’. The project has received £2.5m of funding from Wave Energy Scotland as part of their stage 3 programme and will see the concept demonstrated at full-scale on a unique laboratory test-rig. The rig will simulate the behaviour of a wave energy converter responding to a range of different real sea conditions.
The fundamental Quantor concept is both scalable and adaptable to many different proposed wave energy converters. It may also be applied to challenging controlled force and motion applications in the offshore oil and gas industry and wider afield.
Cable Management System Design
Andritz Hydro Hammerfest
Quoceant were contracted by Andritz Hydro Hammerfest to provide engineering design, analysis services and procurement support in relation to their cable management and subsea connection system for the Meygen project in the Pentland Firth. Our work has included; mechanical and electrical engineering design, through to system prototyping, piloting, assembly and procurement support.
“Quoceant provided engineering design services in relation to our turbine development for the flagship Meygen project. We have been very impressed with Quoceant's input and expertise.”
Craig Love
Engineering Manager, Andritz Hydro Hammerfest
Image (courtesy of MeyGen)
Structural Analysis of Ocean Basin Wave Tank
Edinburgh Designs Limited
Edinburgh Designs Ltd contracted Quoceant to undertake analysis of a novel moveable floor structure for use in a new-build ocean basin wave tank. The work covered both traditional structural analysis of the structure using finite element methods and fluid-structure interaction simulation using both Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian and Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamic methods to examine the affect of wave action on the floor structure at shallow water depths.
The project included analysis and comparison of existing and concept floor structural segments and layouts during wave-induced variable pressure loading for strength and deflection, design of floor components, assessment of natural vibrational mode shapes of the floor structure and assessment of floor behaviour during temporary operating states.
Marine Operations Concept Design
Tension Technology International (TTI)
Quoceant provided marine operations planning support to Tension Technology International as part of the concept development stage of a novel marine energy development project. The work included; story boarding, estimation of weather waiting, availability analysis and costing of deployment and removal operations.
“The Quoceant team bring their real-world experience and ingenuity to bear on the challenge of deploying and maintaining novel technology at sea. We were very happy with their work.”
Ben Yates
Consultant & Director, Tension Technology Intenational Marine Renewables
Advanced Concrete Materials
Wave Energy Scotland
Wave Energy Scotland have awarded a team lead by Quoceant a contract as part of their 3rd Innovation call which targets development of alternative materials and manufacturing processes for use in the wave energy sector. The cutting-edge project will focus on the use of advanced concrete engineering. Quoceant will lead the work with partners Dundee University and consortium members, Black and Veatch, Innosea and David Kerr Engineering.
Concrete is fundamentally well suited to wave energy applications. However, many wave energy designs are demanding for conventional concrete approaches due to high point loads, the requirement to remain water tight, and the potential impacts of salt water on conventional reinforcement materials. This project will investigate new concrete technologies and manufacturing processes to overcome these challenges and offer wave energy developers the opportunity to significantly lower costs.
Control Landscaping Study
ORE Catapult
Quoceant, working with the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult and Sgurr Energy, successfully undertook a landscaping study focusing on control systems for wave energy convertors on behalf of Wave Energy Scotland (WES). Quoceant are world-leading experts in the control of wave energy systems our engineers having previously led the development of the control system and novel hydraulic power-take-off concept successfully demonstrated in the Pelamis Wave Power converter.
Commissioned in March 2016, the overarching control landscaping study is aimed at helping identify the control requirements of wave energy converters, thus enabling targeted technology development and innovation.
The control landscaping study can be downloaded from Wave Energy Scotland here.
Mooring Analysis and Reuse Options
European Marine Energy Center (EMEC)
Quoceant were contracted by the European Marine Energy Center (EMEC) to undertake a review of a mooring system deployed at the wave test site with a view to inform potential developers of its characteristics.
This included review of previously undertaken failure mode effects analysis, static simulation of the mooring system to define general parameters, inspection considerations and high-level concept ideas for reuse of the moorings.
Fluid Power System Review
Orbital Marine Power (formally ScotRenewables)
Quoceant provided expert hydraulic systems knowledge to the review of the fluid power system for a leading tidal developer. The functionality and criticality of the design was considered in detail. Specific design modifications were recommended and the proposed commissioning procedures were reviewed to ensure safe and rigorous testing and that potential in-service risks were being addressed where possible.
Quoceant provided a summary report detailing several observations and associated recommendations.
Third Party Technical Review
Black Rock Tidal Power
Quoceant were selected by Black Rock Tidal Power to provide third party engineering review in relation to their project in the Bay of Fundy, Canada. The scope included technical review of the platform, maintenance methods and systems, sub-sea connection, survey work undertaken at the site and the reported seabed conditions.
A Failure Modes and Effects Analysis methodology was used to identify and highlight areas of greatest risk to survivability of the platform and to ensure the level of risk was acceptable to the client.
Concept Development: Variable Hull
Wave Energy Scotland
Quoceant is developing a novel concept to enable a substantial change to a machines hull volume on command. A selectable hull volume change would allow a wave energy converter to grow substantially to absorb much more power during most of the year, while reverting to a smaller, robustly survivable form in storm conditions. The idea being developed as part of a Wave Energy Scotland (WES) R&D contract, will design a system capable of automatic inflation and deflation and which is stowable to allow multiple uses.
The project includes concept design, analysis, tank testing and cost of energy review. Read more on our blog. The stage 1 report is available from Wave Energy Scotland's Library.
Offshore Operations Review
EMEC
Quoceant were contracted by EMEC to provide expert review and advice in relation to planned offshore operations to remove an obsolete mooring system from the wave test site in Orkney.
The operations took place off the coast of Orkney in approximately 50m of water depth and involved removal of a large subsea buoyancy unit, chain and anchoring system.