Milestones

2005 – 

Research start: the first embryo of W4E came to life when Giuliana and Ermanno, during a long sailing trip, conceived the idea of harnessing the power of waves. Back to the Polytechnic in Turin, they started working on marine energy.

2007 – 

First prototype: a 2 degree of freedom gyroscopic prototype was built to verify the first concepts developed within the research group guided by Giuliana Mattiazzo at the Polytechnic School of Engineering in Turin. First dry tests were undertaken on the model to benchmark the expected computed performances. At this stage Giovanni Bracco and Vincenzo Orlando entered the research group.

2007 – 

Tests in the flumen: the first time W4E team experienced iron in water was in the flumen of the Polytechnic School of Turin, exploiting the joint research scope with Davide Poggi. The 2-dof architecture underwent several testing campaign.

2008 – 

Feasibility studies: 2 multidisciplinary teams of the Alta Scuola Politecnica from the Polytecnich Schools of Milan and Turin start working on the analysis of the potential market and innovative technologies to exploit the energy of waves. At the end of the project the teams with the help of the research group realized a prototype with a pendulum technology to be compared with ISWEC system.

2009 – 

Second prototype: a 1 degree of freedom device was designed and created exploiting a new architecture conceived by the team. Tests were performed on a dry test rig in the mechanical laboratory of the Polytechnic School of Turin and in the flumen of the Department of Hydraulics and Transports.

2009 – 

Tank tests in Edinburgh: the research group brought the 1-dof prototype in the wave tank of the University of Edinburgh, where Giovanni spent also a research semester during his PhD. Crucial data were collected during the 1-week testing campaign.

2010 – 

Creation of W4E: the company was officially started up. In that year W4E partecipated also to the Start Cup at the I3P of the Polytechnic School of Turin, arriving among finalists of that event.

2010 – 

Tank tests in Naples: the ISWEC 1-dof was put into water also in the wave tank of the University Federico II of Naples. 

2010 – 

Design of 1:8 model: grounding on the data of the previous dry and wet experiments W4E started designing the 1:8 prototype, a 5mx5m size device with state of the art solutions, ranging from vacuum chamber and very low friction bearings.

2011 – 

Production of 1:8: the development of the 1:8 prototype began with the partners of W4E (ARIS SpA and Moog Inc).

2011 – 

Tank tests (to come): wave tank tests of the 1:8 prototype are sceduled within the end of the year.

2011 – 

Sea trials (to come): after the wave tank tests the ISWEC system will be moved to the sea to perform the first testing campaign in the real marine environment.

2011 – 

1:1 Grid-Connected ISWEC developed and deployed (to come): the first 60 kW system will be designed and produced grounding on the data collected during the sea trials of the 1:8 prototype.

2012 –

Grid-Connected production: the production of Grid-Connected devices will be outsourced at the beginning, with the goal of developing the first wave farm in the Mediterranean Sea.

2012 – 

Stand-Alone production (to come): another product line will be started using the same technology of the Grid-Connected architecture.