I recently spoke to the team who won the US Wave Energy Prize– Alex and Max, to find out more about the AquaHarmonics buoy. I wanted to figure out what they did that made their concept come out on top. After careful consideration, I think what won them the prize was a combination of a smart design philosophy that had control at its core, along with being the dream-team for any kind of scrapheap-challenge-type competition. Let’s have a quick look at their concept and the control method. I’ll highlight the technical features that I think were really important for them. Then I’ll relate a little story Alex told about how he and Max met, and how they came to be tinkering with wave energy in Alex’s garage.
