Upcoming Lunch Lectures

Date: Tuesday 30 March, 2021

Time: 12:45 - 13:45 CET

Link to join the lecture:  Microsoft Teams  link

Abstract: 

With a coastline length of more than 8.000 km, the fact that Italy is one of the nations with the ambition of exploiting the sea wave energy for producing electrical energy is not surprising. However, this desire is counterbalanced by the challenge of deploying devices able to harvest energy from an energy-wise moderate/poor environment: the Mediterranean Sea. This lecture describes the challenge of exploiting low/moderate seas for producing electrical energy. In particular, it deals with the major advancements in the context of Oscillating Water Columns (OWC): a technology widely proposed in oceanic seas, but barely considered elsewhere. In this context, a recent development led to the concept of U-Oscillating Water Column (U-OWC), which is a OWC equipped with a U-duct. The lecture traces the history of this device, from the first tests on small scale models, and describes its peculiarities with reference to the experience gathered during the construction and testing of the first prototype in the port of Civitavecchia (Italy), where U-OWCs have been embedded in classical vertical breakwaters. Finally, it outlines future directions connected with the implementation of this technology in offshore seas in conjunction with multipurpose offshore platforms.

Short Bio: 

Giovanni Malara is Senior Researcher in Marine Engineering at the “Mediterranea” University of Reggio Calabria (Italy), where he teaches courses on Coastal Engineering and Renewable Energies. His research interests include wave energy converter development, long-term statistics analyses, mechanics of extreme waves, and compressive sensing techniques applied to sea wave data. In 2015 he was the scientific coordinator of Wavenergy.it (spin-off of the Mediterranea University) during the development of the TEN-T project “Study for the development of the green mobility in the port of Civitavecchia through the implementation of the pilot technology REWEC 3” funded by the European Commission. This project dealt with the first experimental test on a prototype of U-Oscillating Water Column energy harvester at the Port of Civitavecchia (Rome).