A partnership project that aims to be the stepping stone towards large-scale wave energy commercialisation, has received the formal go-ahead from the European Union.
The €19.6m WEDUSEA (pictured) is a collaboration between 14 partners, spanning industry and academia from across the UK, Ireland, France, Germany and Spain.
It is co-ordinated by the Irish company OceanEnergy.
The project is co-funded by the EU Horizon Europe Programme and by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency.
In common with all other Horizon Europe schemes, WEDUSEA has undergone a comprehensive independent review by EU appointed external experts following its initial design period to ensure the technical designs and all plans, budgets and protocols are fully in place and approved.
The green light has now been received from the EU and the scheme can proceed to its next stage.
The WEDUSEA project team will now demonstrate a grid connected 1MW OE35 floating wave energy converter at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) test site at Billia Croo in Orkney, Scotland.
A rigorous technical and environmental demonstration will happen over a two-year period in Atlantic wave conditions.
OceanEnergy has developed the OE35, which it says is the world’s largest capacity floating wave energy device.
Floating on the ocean’s surface, the device incorporates a trapped air volume, with the lower part open to the sea.
Wave pressures at the submerged opening cause the water to oscillate and drive the trapped air through a turbine to generate electricity.
Electricity generated will be exported to the UK grid via EMEC’s subsea cables.
OceanEnergy chief technical officer Tony Lewis said: “Wave energy is the world’s most valuable renewable resource with around 30TWh of potential annual production waiting to be harnessed.
“That’s almost ten times Europe’s annual electricity consumption.
“However, this potential has yet to be fully realised.
“The project will demonstrate that wave technology is on a cost reduction trajectory and will thus be a stepping stone to larger commercial array scale up and further industrialisation.
“We predict that the natural energy of the world’s oceans will one day supply much of the grid.”
The WEDUSEA project has three phases.
The first is the initial design and build of a device suited to the ocean conditions at EMEC’s Billia Croo wave energy test site.
This will be followed by the demonstration at the site, lasting two years.
The final phase will be commercialisation and dissemination which sees the capitalisation and exploitation of the results.
The wave converter build starts in the second half of 2024 and the demonstration at EMEC is expected to begin in June 2025.