Enel Green Power deploys PB3 PowerBuoy wave energy converter off the coast of Las Cruces

Enel Green Power Chile, Enel Chile's renewable energy subsidiary, installed the PB3 PowerBuoy, the first full-scale wave energy converter off the coast of Las Cruces, in the Valparaíso Region. The marine energy generator installed by Enel Green Power is the first of its kind in Latin America and the fifth in the world.

The innovative system converts wave energy into electrical energy that is stored in a 50 kWh battery system located inside the PB3 PowerBuoy, which feeds the different oceanographic sensors that monitor the marine environment. The information obtained from this device will allow to learn about the behavior of the waves, optimize the resource, and thus lead the investigation of this type of renewable energy in the country and in the world.

The PB3 PowerBuoy is provided by Ocean Power Technologies, a US renewable energy company. The system, installed 1.2 kilometers from the coast of the Coastal Marine Research Station, is 14 meters long and weighs 10 tons, designed to operate in the ocean as of 20 meters in depth. In this case, it is anchored, floating at a depth of 35 meters.