This feasibility project looks to determine whether the WITT energy harvester, which converts chaotic motional energy from all 6 degrees of freedom into electrical energy, could be deployed tethered to the sea floor in remote locations, and housed within a protective casing, to convert sub-sea currents into electrical energy to power sensor instrumentation subsea. Witt Limited will be working with The Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult (OREC), the UK’s flagship technology, innovation and research centre for offshore wind, wave and tidal energy, as a subcontractor to draw on their expertise and knowledge to devise an optimum embodiment to convert such subsea currents into electricity with the WITT housed inside. Witt Limited has been approached by oil and gas entities interested in the capability for the WITT to power sensors subsea, defence entities for sensors, and others for environmental and other applications. The benefit of the WITT is that it would be able to provide continuous power where otherwise battery solutions would be required which batteries are very costly to replace in remote sea locations.

Converting sea wave motion into electrical energy is challenging, in part due to the relatively low speeds and irregular movements of ocean waves. WITT Ltd (WL) has devised a scalable technological innovation in energy generation called the WITT that has the capability to harness wave energy. The innovation concerns a patented transmission system that converts mechanical motion in the full six degrees into a single unidirectional rotation used to drive an efficient generator for the production of electricity. No other transmission is capable of collecting all of this chaotic motion and turning it into useable power. Sealed unit operation is potentially maintenance free and suitable for marine environments. It can also be built from tried and tested industry components. For this reason the WITT potentially provides a compelling marine energy harvesting device. This feasibility project will assess the capability and potential of the WITT to be deployed offshore as a wave energy converter to generate power compared to competitive wave energy converter technologies. It will determine whether it does indeed potentially offer a standout solution capable of UK wide scale deployment.

Energy can be captured from human motion such as walking and used to power devices but to date the practicalities of doing so and the level of power achievable from piezoelectrical devices have limited the development of an unobtrusive commercial solution that could be clipped onto a belt and sold world-wide to recharge mobile phones. WITT Ltd (WL) has devised a technological innovation in energy generation called the WITT that has the capability to harness natural human motional energy. The innovation concerns a patented transmission system that converts mechanical motion in the full six degrees of motion, up and down, back and forth, side to side, into a single unidirectional rotation used to drive an efficient generator for the production of electricity. No other transmission is capable of collecting all of this chaotic motion and turning it into useable power. WITTs can be scaled to any size including small and micro size and built from components that can be mass produced in volume at low cost. For this reason the WITT provides a far more compelling energy harvesting device than is currently available, particularly where small energy harvesting power generation devices are becoming increasingly in demand to continually power devices like mobile phones, ipads, Google Glass, etc without their batteries becoming drained. This project will create a prototype unit small scale WITT device the size of an egg of thereabouts that can be clipped to a belt like a key ring to capture sufficient energy from human walking to charge an inbuilt battery which can in turn be used to recharge a mobile phone when its battery becomes low. 1.8bn mobile phones were sold last year, and there are 6.8bn mobile phone contracts globally. Many users do not have ongoing access to mains power providing a global sales opportunity both for consumers who do not want to run out of power, and for users in the developing world where grid power is unavailable.

Sea waves are a renewable resource comprising 70% of the planet. But converting sea wave motion into electrical energy is challenging, in part due to the relatively low speeds and irregular movements of ocean waves. WITT Ltd (WL) has devised a technological innovation in energy generation called the WITT that has the capability to harness wave energy. The innovation concerns a patented transmission system that converts mechanical motion in the full six degrees,up and down, back and forth, side to side, into a single unidirectional rotation used to drive an efficient generator for the production of electricity. No other transmission is capable of collecting all of this chaotic motion and turning it into useable power. WITTs can be scaled to any size and fitted within different enclosures dependent on the application. Sealed unit operation is potentially maintenance free and suitable for marine environments. It can also be built from tried and tested industry components. For this reason the WITT provides a far more compelling marine energy harvesting device than is currently available. This project will create a prototype unit capable of delivering 15 watts for use both in marine buoys and small boats where naturally occurring motional energy can be converted into usable power. Many marine buoys require electrical power for instrumentation and lighting devices. Solar PV is often used but has daylight use limitations and requires extensive battery support. Small marine vessels, yachts, motor boats, etc also can use of solar PV with the same limitations. Small wind turbines are also used but are noisy and only work in windy conditions. Otherwise electricity is sourced from diesel power. This project will demonstrate WITTs in marine buoy and small vessel use to show its compelling energy harvesting capability and will demonstrate the cost and environmental savings than can be achieved by generating electricity from a WITT compared to diesel for all small vessels.

Support from the Technology Strategy Board has been secured for a 10 month project which addresses the fundamental challenge of improving vessel efficiency through the demonstration / application of a novel device that generates renewable energy through the motions of ships. The device is the WITT (Whatever Input to Torsion Transfer) device, a patented device capable of converting mechanical motion from all naturally occurring motional energy and turning it into useable power. The project will quantify how much energy can be generated by the device as a proportion of the ship’s total power requirement and the extent to which operational costs can be reduced through savings in fuel use. The proposal intends to design, develop and demonstrate the WITT device, specifically for installation on board vessels to clearly illustrate to shipowners/operators, the cost savings they will be able to make on typical vessel voyages. The proposal will develop an exploitation plan to ensure that the device can be successfully marketed for widespread application. The consortium consist of A&P, a large company with significant international market presence in vessel repairs, refit and construction. they are lead partner and will manage the exploitation of the device in the market. Supacat, renowned for taking exciting concepts and developing them into exceptional products will develop the WITT device for the specific purpose of generating energy on board vessels. WITT Energy Ltd, will supply the technology the consortium aims to market. The Universities of Exeter and Plymouth will provide expertise and facilities to test the demonstrator in order to help optimise the design.