CHENNAI: Researchers at the IIT Madras have developed and deployed a device that could generate electricity using energy from sea waves. The system dubbed Sindhuja-I was deployed by the researchers about six kilometres from the coast of Thoothukudi, where the sea has a depth of about 20 metres. Sindhuja-I can currently produce 100 watts of energy, and within three years, the production could be scaled up to one megawatt of energy.
The project’s success will help fulfil several objectives such as the UN Ocean Decade and Sustainable development goals, and India’s targets regarding deep water missions, clean energy and blue economy. It could help India meet its climate change-related goals of generating 500 GW of electricity by 2030 through renewable sources.
Sindhuja-I device is targeted towards remote offshore locations that require reliable electricity and communication either by supplying electric power to payloads that are integrated directly on the device or located in its vicinity as on the seabed and in the water column. Targeted stakeholders are oil and gas, defence and security installations and communication sectors. IIT Madras faculty Professor Abdus Samad, who has been working for over a decade on wave energy, lead the mission.
He established a state-of-the-art ‘Wave Energy and Fluids Engineering Laboratory’ (WEFEL) at IIT Madras and his team designed and tested a scaled-down model. The lab is also researching other applications for this technology such as producing power for smaller devices for the ocean like navigational buoys and data buoys, among others.