Archimedes Wave Swing

The Archimedes Wave Swing is a submerged wave energy device built from two overlapping cylinders, a lower one fixed to the seabed and an upper floater that moves with the swell above it, trapping a pocket of air between them that compresses and expands as waves pass overhead; the floater motion drives a direct drive linear generator that produces electricity on both its downward and upward strokes. The Dutch company Teamwork Technology BV began developing the concept in 1993, and in May 2004 a 2 megawatt peak output prototype was installed and tested at Aguçadoura, Portugal, at the time among the largest wave energy prototypes ever built; the Scottish firm AWS Ocean Energy, founded that same month, acquired the technology intellectual property and continued its development. A follow-on Mark II design was judged unlikely to reach commercial viability at a projected cost of 500 to 700 pounds per megawatt hour and was shelved in 2008, but the concept was revived from 2014 onward through the Wave Energy Scotland Novel Wave Energy Converter programme, and in 2022 a four meter diameter, seven meter tall prototype generating 16 kilowatts was tested at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney.