BOLT1 at Fred. Olsen Test Site Norway (2009 – 2011)
June 26th 2009 Fred. Olsen installed the point absorber system BOLT1 at our local test site off the coast of Risør, Norway. She was deployed for 21 months.
BOLT1 has electrical power take off, but an hydraulic accumulator system that workes as a spring to wind the drum back in. Though the hydraulics proved to be a reliable system, it taught us the complexity of a hybrid system in terms of offshore maintenance.
She was fitted with a regular rope winch, and the engineering team was able to verify the rope manufacurers prediction of about 400.000 cycles lifetime of the rope.
Following the BOLT1 test trials, it was decided to replace hydraulic pull back with electric and that a completely new high cycle winch design had to be developed.
| Operational Key Performance Indicators | |
| Period installed on site | Jun. 2009 – Oct. 2011 |
| Time on site | 15.216 hrs |
| Production hours | 1.186 hrs |
| System uptime | 8% |
| Total produced electrical energy | 4 824 kWh |
| Total absorbed mechanical energy | 14 568 kWh |
| Overall efficiency (electrical/mechanical energy) | 33% |
| Average power over all production periods | 4.1 kW |
| Max average power over 20 min series | 5.8 kW |
| Longest recorded winch stroke | 6 m |
Accumulated produced electric energy over the installation period.
Distribution of energy produced over 20 minutes series:
