An apparatus includes a floating body that reciprocates in a vertical direction based on motion. The apparatus includes a drive assembly that includes a drive connected to the floating body to move upwards and downwards in the vertical direction based on the movement of the floating body. The assembly includes at least one driving arm connected to the drive such that each driving arm of the at least one driving arm extends in a direction perpendicular to the vertical direction. The assembly include at least one cable coupling the at least one driving arm to a clutch on a drive shaft. The assembly includes the drive shaft, which rotates based on the movement of the floating body.

Underwater vehicles capable of self-propulsion are described. An underwater vehicle includes a cross-flow turbine including two or more foils spaced apart from a main shaft. The foils have a pitch that is adjustable under control of a pitch control mechanism. The underwater vehicle also includes a frame supporting the main shaft. The frame enables rotation of the cross-flow turbine. The underwater vehicle additionally includes a generator-motor set including rotor and stator elements. The rotor element is in rotary communication with the main shaft.

A mobile offshore electric power system used for generating electricity from an ocean current or a navigable river current. The offshore electric power system uses a platform from a decommissioned oil drilling rig to suspend one, two or more hydro-kinetic turbines, with electric generators, in the ocean current. The electric generators are connected to an electric generator cable to the platform and then transferred to an onshore electric cable connected to a power grid. The platform can be from a converted semi-submersible drilling rig, which is anchored to an ocean floor. Also, the platform can be from a jack-up drilling rig. Further, the platform can be mounted on a large ocean-going boat, with a dynamic positioning system, used in a navigable river.

The invention relates to a mooring arrangement (2, 2) for a floating device (1, 2) comprising a band (5) and a drum (3) adapted to pay out and pull in the band (5). The invention being distinctive in that the mooring arrangement (2, 2 further comprising a band guide (14, 15,22), said band (5) is extending from the drum (3) via the band guide (14, 15, 22) and is adapted to be coupled to an anchoring arrangement (13), said band said band guide (4, 15, 22) being configured to tilt about an articulation axis (A, B) being parallel with a longitudinal axis of the part of the band (5a) situated between the drum (3) and the band guide (14, 15, 22) in order to position the band (5) to compensate for movement in the floating device (1,12, 12) and thus reduce the wear in the band (5).

A system that maintains the relative and/or absolute geographical positions of two or more buoyant devices floating in a body of water. A plurality of formation restoring tethers are disclosed which permit the unrestricted vertical movement of networked buoyant devices, while resisting increases in their lateral separations by providing restoring forces to oppose such separations. Tensioning mechanisms incorporated into the tethers generate the resistance to the lateral separations of two or more entities by transforming such separations into an increase in the potential energy stored within such tensioning mechanisms, the potential energy of which is released in the process of restoring the original separations and/or positions of the displaced buoyant devices.

A vertical twin rotor water turbine apparatus and method for extracting energy from a flow of water is described herein. The described apparatus delivers favourable performance by virtue the operation of a novel configuration of a plurality of central cores with at least one blade member extending from each core and flow directors to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of said device.

Increased energy harvesting is realized using a nonlinear buoy geometry for reactive power generation. By exploiting the nonlinear dynamic coupling between the buoy geometry and the potential wideband frequency spectrum of incoming waves in the controller/buoy design, increased power can be captured in comparison to conventional wave energy converter designs. In particular, the reactive power and energy storage system requirements are inherently embedded in the nonlinear buoy geometry, therefore requiring only simple rate-feedback control.

A buoy (10) comprising a central column (12), an outer frame (14) attached to the central column with buoyancy which may be provided by the outer frame and/or by attached buoyancy units (16). The central column is negatively buoyant and is normally open at one end to allow water to flow in, and create an oscillating water column caused by waves. This water column dampens the effect of wave or other forces on the buoy, thus providing a more stable foundation for a wind powered generator. A further generator may be provided to extract energy from the oscillating water column. The buoy is normally attached to an anchor by one or more tension leg tethers which maintains the buoyancy below the surface of the water which has also be found to increase stability. The anchor may be a modular gravity base anchor.

An energy-harvesting compute grid includes computing assemblies that cooperate with mobile energy harvesters configured to be deployed on a body of water. The plurality of energy harvesters are positioned on and move adjacent to an upper surface of a body of water, and the locations of the energy harvesters can be monitored and controlled. The wide-spread gathering by the harvesters of environmental data within that geospatial area permits the forecasting of environmental factors, the discovery of advantageous energy-harvesting opportunities, the observation and tracking of hazardous objects and conditions, the efficient distribution of data and/or tasks to and between the harvesters included in the compute grid, the efficient execution of logistical operations to support, upgrade, maintain, and repair the cluster, and the opportunity to execute data-gathering across an area much larger than that afforded by an individual harvester (e.g., radio astronomy, 3D tracking of and recording of the communication patterns of marine mammals, etc.). The computational tasks can be shared and distributed among a compute grid implemented in part by a collection of individual floating self-propelled energy harvesters thereby providing many benefits related to cost and efficiency that are unavailable to relatively isolated energy harvesters, and likewise unavailable to terrestrial compute grids of the prior art.

A mooring arrangement for a floating device includes a band and a drum adapted to pay out and pull in the band. The mooring arrangement includes a band guide, the band is extending from the drum via the band guide and is adapted to be coupled to an anchoring arrangement, the band guide being configured to tilt about an articulation axis being parallel with a longitudinal axis of the part of the band situated between the drum and the band guide in order to position the band to compensate for movement in the floating device and thus reduce the wear in the band.