A wave power converter is presented comprising an airtight compressible bag supporting a ballast and configured to be inflated with gas. The airtight compressible bag comprises flexible walls, wherein the shape and length of the bag is determined by the equilibrium between the weight of the ballast and the pressure inside the bag. A floating body is connected to the airtight compressible bag by a tube. The converter comprises one or more airtight vessels and a power conversion means for generating power from the reciprocating flow of gas between the bag and airtight vessel. The airtight compressible bag is submerged and surrounded by water on all sides wherein the heaving and/or pitching of said floating body excites the oscillation of said ballast which squeezes and expands said airtight compressible bag driving the contained gas via the tube and power conversion means into and out of the airtight vessel.

A self-propelled, robotic power generating system remains submerged in deep water areas, tethered within steady-state, generally unidirectional sea currents in non-tidal areas for the continuous production of turbine-generated electricity that is transmittable by multipurpose undersea power cable to onshore electric grids. System aspects include a shore-to-system communication means to remotely manage all system functions; a sea current intake consisting of a cone-like, retractable current amplifier to significantly increase the energy density of the currents passing through the amplifier to the turbine; a self propulsion means to move the system to maintain a desirable location within a prescribed area that may be subject to meandering currents; a snorkel-like vertical air conduit for ballast control; a seawater pumping means for ballast control; a retractable marine wildlife protector to cover the sea current intake; and a remotely retractable anchor means to maintain the generating system in a target position for extended time periods.

The invention relates to a tidal wave powered device and a method thereof for producing potential energy from the movement of tidal waves in a water mass, the device comprising a cylinder (18) anchored to the bed (22) of the water mass with a piston (16) located in the cylinder to define a pumping chamber (25) therein. A storage tank (23) is located at an elevated height for storage of water delivered from the cylinder pumping chamber (25). A docking unit (30) anchored to the bed of the water mass is connected to a floater (10) such that when the floater (10) attains an optimal height, the docking unit (30) is locked in to hold the floater (10) in an elevated position. The docking unit (30) is opened to release the floater (10) from the elevated position so that the weight of the floater pushes the piston (16) downwards to deliver water from the pumping chamber (25) of the cylinder (18) into the storage tank (23).

Disclosed is a system for deploying, stationing, and translocating buoyant wind- and wave-energy converters and/or other buoyant structures or devices, as well as farms of same. Also disclosed is a novel apparatus and/or machine comprising a farm of buoyant wave energy converters deployed by said method and/or configured to be deployed by said method.

A platform for exploiting the energy of waves operating in a marine environment and floating on the sea is disclosed. This comprises a submerged portion existing below a sea surface, an emerged portion existing above the sea surface, and a partially submerged wave power transfer mechanism portion including the sea surface and coupling the submerged portion and the emerged portion.

A wave energy converter comprises a submerged buoyant vessel (10) that can react directly with the seabed using neutrally buoyant taut tethers (19) at depths that characterize the continental shelf. The vessel (10) is held by a taut vertical mooring line (12) of controllable length and a taut vertical upper line (17) of controllable length connected to a surface float (15). These lines (12, 17) have elastic sections, allowing the vessel (10) to follow an orbital path in response to swell from any direction. By varying the length of these lines (12, 17) the submersion of the vessel (10) can be varied dynamically according to wave height. By varying the tension of these lines (12, 17) the natural oscillation period of the vessel (10) can be varied dynamically in response to the swell period.

A wave energy conversion system for harnessing wave energy in a body of water and converting the harnessed wave energy to pressurized fluid, and also a method of deploying such a wave energy conversion system. The wave energy conversion system comprises a unit including a buoyant structure responsive to wave motion, at least one pump and at least one tether adapted to be operably connected between the pump and a fixture below the unit, whereby movement of the buoyant structure relative to the fixture in response to wave motion converts harnessed energy to pressurized fluid. The unit is adapted to be deployed by moving the tether into coupling engagement with the fixture upon actuation of the pump in a manner causing movement of the tether into engagement with the fixture.

A pod of an ocean current power generation device which is serving as an underwater floating-type underwater device is provided with a ballast tank and an air storage tank. When discharging water from the ballast tank, by opening a water discharge valve and driving a water discharge pump, water inside the ballast tank is discharged to the outside through a water conduit. When supplying water, by opening a water supply valve while the water pressure outside the pod is greater than the water pressure inside the ballast tank, water is made to flow from the outside of the pod through an aperture portion, and into the ballast tank via the water conduit.

A multifunctional carrying device for a tidal stream generator and a using method thereof, the multifunctional carrying device for a tidal stream generator comprises: an elongated main floating body; carrying frames, horizontally extending towards the left side and the right side from the center part of the elongated main floating body, an end part of the carrying frames being used for carrying the tidal stream generator; the elongated main floating body being a central floating control pipe (100) with two ends sealed, cable tying locations being positioned at the two ends of the central floating control pipe (100), a pipe air inlet/outlet (702) being disposed above one end of the central floating control pipe (100) and a pipe water inlet/outlet (704) being disposed below the other end of the central floating control pipe (100); a remote air pipe (700), having one end connected to the pipe air inlet/outlet (702) and the other end connected to a control switch (707); the central floating control pipe (100) being connected to the carrying frames using orthogonal node components; and automatic depth-fixing and stabilizing parts (400), evenly disposed, along a vertical bisection plane of the orthogonal node components, on rigid parts that are directly connected to the orthogonal node components. The device has an efficient floating and sinking control function and an automatic depth-fixing and stabilizing function.

A submergible wave energy converter and method for using the same are described. Such a wave energy converter may be used for deep water operations. In one embodiment, the wave energy converter apparatus comprises an absorber having a body with an upper surface and a bottom surface and at least one power take-off (PTO) unit coupled to the absorber and configured to displace movement of the absorber body relative to a reference, where the power take-off unit is operable to perform motion energy conversion based on displacement of the absorber body relative to the reference in response to wave excitation, and where the power take-off unit is operable to return the absorber body from a displaced position to a predefined equilibrium position and to provide a force acting on the absorber body for energy extraction.