GateKeeper Buoy

The Station Keeping GateKeeper Buoy being proposed by SARA, Inc. uses a revolutionary MHD generator to power the required FORCEnet communications equipment and the propulsion unit required for station keeping. It uses a dual buoy design, where the surface buoy contains the communications equipment and the propulsion device to enable station keeping inside the desired watch circle. The towed device is submerged and houses the MHD generator, which draws its power from the opposing motion of the two buoys transferred via the connecting tether. The focus of this proposal will be on the feasibility study in the design of the desired buoy hull forms and that of the smaller scale MHD generator. SARA currently has 2 SBIR Phase II projects for the larger scale (100 kW) MHD generator based OWEC devices and is confident that a smaller version of this generator could be designed for this application.