Energy Extraction from Low Height Sea Wave in Sarawak near Shore Region

Generating electricity from wave is predicted to be a new source of renewable energy conversion gaining more attention and is considered in various countries as promising renewable resource. Being surrounded by sea, Malaysia has the advantage of tapping energy from the nearest sea wave. However, Malaysia has low wave climate compared to other regions. On top of that, the technologies available for extracting this energy are still in infancy stage. This study explored the potential of generating electricity from low height wave energy. The recorded average electricity can be generated from the lab scale device which is 0.224 V, 0.175 A and 0.039 W. The data collected from Mukah Beach show that the maximum voltage recorded is 1.021 V, maximum current of 0.86 A and highest power of 0.878 W. By comparing results from both locations, the difference is almost 10-fold which validates the wave maker built in laboratory with 1:10 ratio. The standard deviation of all the outputs is small which indicates that the output generation from low height wave would be consistent. Although the output is small, it could be paired together to make a larger system to generate higher output. This study concludes that the developed lab scale model is useful for harnessing electrical energy from sea wave. The future direction of research would be to optimize the current method to maximize energy capture from sea wave. Another direction for future study is to make a system comprised of a large number of such devices to generate higher output.