Manchester Bobber

News

Rushlight Award Manchester Bobber gains national recognition

A Manchester company and its wave power invention, the Manchester Bobber, beat off stiff competition from marine renewable developers from across the UK last night (10.12.07) to win a national award.

The Bobber Company Ltd and its wave power generator, Manchester Bobber, were announced joint winners of the Marine Energy Award at the 2007 Rushlight Awards. The Bobber won the award for its significant achievement towards commercial exploitation in developing technology that harnesses marine renewable power. The Bobber shared the top gong with the OE Buoy by Irish company Ocean Energy Ltd. - Full press release

Burntisland Fabrications Ltd (BiFab) joins the Manchester Bobbers industrial consortium.

The Bobber Company Limited is pleased to announce that BiFab have joined the industrial consortium supporting and working alongside The Bobber Company to develop and commercialise the Manchester Bobber wave technology. The consortium now boasts key skills and expertise in all critical areas required to deploy the Manchester Bobber wave energy device in the commercial arena.

all energy 2008 The Manchester Bobber returns for a third consecutive year to All-Energy.

The industrial partner team has increased in strength and breadth since All-Energy 2007. The team will be showing the latest video footage of 1/100th scale array trials, 1/10th scale working model, a promotional DVD (which captures the history, present phase of work and next steps moving towards commercialisation) and animations of the conceptual full scale Manchester Bobber commercial 12.5MW power station. Free promotional literature and photos of previous testing phases will be available, plus the opportunity to discuss the issues with those currently behind the development. We are located on stand S1 and look forward to seeing you.

all energy 2007 The Manchester Bobber to exhibit at All-Energy 2007 (Stand F21)

The Manchester Bobber returns for a second consecutive year to All-Energy. The industrial partner team has increased in strength and breadth since All-Energy 2006. The team will be showing video footage of 1/100th scale array trials, 1/10th scale working model, a promotional DVD (which captures the history, present phase of work and next steps moving towards commercialisation) and animations of the conceptual full scale Manchester Bobber commercial power station. Free promotional literature and photos of previous testing phases will be available, plus the opportunity to discuss the issues with those currently behind the development. We are located on stand F21 and look forward to seeing you.

all energy The Manchester Bobber industrial partner team increases in anticipation of trialling off-shore

The last 12 months has seen a significant increase in the number of industrial partners joining the Manchester Bobber team. World leading companies have joined the partnership to design and develop the Manchester Bobber technology in preparation for off-shore trials of a single full scale unit. Industrial partners ABB, Royal Haskoning, Renold Chain, Renold Gears, Off-shore Design Engineering (ode), Bridon International, Red Rooster, Armstrong Davies Associates and Capita Symonds, have worked intensively to bring together a creditable financial budget, project plan, component design and testing plan, to take the Manchester Bobber off-shore for an anticipated 12 month trial. Grant and investor funding is now being sought for this phase of work. Image courtesy of Royal Haskoning

all energy A first showing at All-Energy 2006 for The Manchester Bobber

Video footage of our 1/10th scale working model, a promotional DVD (which captures the history, present phase of work and next steps moving towards commercialisation) and animations of the conceptual full scale Manchester Bobber structure will be on display. Free promotional literature and photos of previous testing phases will be available plus the opportunity to discuss the issues with those currently behind the development. We are located on stand K23 look forward to seeing you.

Partnership successfully obtains grant funding for 100th scale array tests

Early 2006 Grant funding was secured by the Manchester Bobber consortium to carry out Phase 3a of the next stage of testing. Phase 3a commenced February 2006 and runs for 12 months. The research program concentrates on the optimization of the 1/100th scale bobber and models their behaviour in both regular and random wave patterns. The testing and optimization is being carried out by the inventors at the University of Manchester using a bespoke flume.

10th scale testing at NaREC and full scale concept designs - the green light for Phase 3

The Manchester Bobber was successfully tested at NaREC during September 2005 with power output and data analysis completed by the end of February 2006. In parallel to the 1/10th scale trials full scale concept designs (fixed bed and floating) have been developed and cost estimates undertaken.
Both the testing and concept design work has added up to a green light being given to progress to Phase 3. On the back of the teams hard work significant industrial interest has been generated for Phase 3 and beyond.

Partnership wins second round Carbon Trust funding

A significant amount of Carbon Trust funding was secured in May 2005 by the Manchester Bobber partnership (University of Manchester, University of Manchester Intellectual Property Limited (UMIP), Mowlem plc and Royal Haskoning). This money has been awarded to scale-up the Manchester Bobber wave energy device and for the development of several conceptual designs with cost estimates for the best concept.

Construction and testing of an electricity producing intermediate size device (about 1/10th scale, and 1/1000th of the power of a commercial size device) will take place in a wave flume at NaREC during September 2005.

The tests will provide:

improved empirical values for the coefficients needed to account for some hydrodynamic aspects which cannot reliably be scaled.
tests in both simple waves and in more realistic complex and random wave conditions.
adjustment and improvement of the computational model using test results
publicity for the project which will be used to secure funding and industry support for the next stages of development.

Improved computational modelling and an understanding of the behaviour of the Manchester Bobber in complex and random waves will greatly assist in component selection and enable better costing of a commercial size device.

The resultant 1/10th scale physical and computation data, along with the cost estimates for the best full scale conceptual offshore platform, will enable greater accuracy when calculating the cost to produce electricity and a cost for a full scale platform and generating equipment.

Manchester Bobber: Successful trials at 1/100th scale

The Manchester Bobber was designed, built and meticulously tested at the University of Manchester’s wave flume test facility during 2004. Optimisation of the power output and response to waves using both the computational and physical model data has enabled a better understanding of the Manchester Bobber’s operating envelope in a uni-directional wave spectrum.

June ‘04 saw the Manchester Bobber demonstrated to Mowlem plc and Royal Haskoning who were so impressed they agreed to carry out initial development and costing of a full scale prototype.

A combination of very encouraging power output data and initial cost data for a full scale prototype has lead to the joint submission (University of Manchester, University of Manchester Intellectual Property Limited (UMIP), Mowlem plc and Royal Haskoning) for Carbon Trust funding. Funding would allow 1/10th scale testing (physical and computational modelling) of the Manchester Bobber in a random wave and enable Mowlem plc and Royal Haskoning to produce conceptual designs for a full scale Bobber array with costing detail for the best concept.