Eco Wave Power is part of a consortium that has won a UK government grant for a pilot microgrid on a remote island in Thailand that will use wave energy.
The £1.5m has been awarded to the project consortium, which is led by Toshiba (UK) and Aquatera (UK), and is part of Innovate UK’s Energy Catalyst programme Round 10.
It supports UK and international businesses and organisations in developing market-focused technologies that provide clean, affordable and accessible energy.
The consortium also includes Hitachi Energy and teams from the University of Manchester, the University of Exeter, the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) and the Queen Mary University of London (QMUL).
The consortium will use Eco Wave Power’s onshore wave energy converters (WECs) and implement advanced technology developed by the corporate partners and the university teams.
Eco Wave Power was selected by the parties as Eco Wave Power’s WEC offers “several competitive advantages including cost-efficiency, insurability, reliability, environmental friendliness, and a forecasted attractive levelised cost of energy for low-income residents in islands, in comparison to solar and diesel generators”.
New technology to be developed as part of the project will include the development and deployment of predictive control systems, a radar system to forecast wave heights to help avoid hazardous conditions and maximise WECs energy generation, a fully AI-based load and generation prediction system and a wireless, distributed energy management system to provide electricity without lithium ion batteries.
Professor Guang Li, of the University of Manchester, said: “This is a second grant from Innovate UK for the development and commercialisation of the Eco Wave Power’s technology.
“In our previous early-stage project, we have numerically demonstrated the efficacy of our advanced control technology that can improve the onshore WEC energy output by at least 40%.
“This project will enable us to continue our study in this area to further promote the technology readiness level and significantly enhance the WEC potential.”
Inna Braverman, Founder and CEO of Eco Wave Power, added: “We see this as a strong vote of confidence in Eco Wave Power and our pioneering technology and look forward to a productive collaboration with the team from Toshiba, Hitachi, Aquatera Queen Mary University of London, University of Manchester, The Asian Institute of Technology, the University of Exeter, and the Provincial Electricity Authority of Thailand.
“We are extremely grateful to Innovate UK for this Grant, as this project presents a unique opportunity for us to research a new technology application for our WEC, customised for islands and other micro grid applications, which are a significant target market for Eco Wave Power.”
The Thai electrical state enterprise, the Provincial Electricity Authority, will act as the microgrid operator on the island and minimise the capital cost of electricity to provide an electricity tariff, as inexpensive as monthly mobile charges.