A group in Europe is starting a project that could make big waves in the clean energy industry. According to Interesting Engineering, the European Union has approved over $21 million for the WEDUSEA (Wave Energy Demonstration at Utility Scale to Enable Arrays) project, which will test a 1-megawatt wave energy converter. The project is funded by the EU Horizon Program and Innovate UK.
Like wind energy, waves have a virtually endless capacity for clean energy generation, but it's a fairly new technology that may seem risky in the eyes of investors. The WEDUSEA project hopes to change that.
The project was coordinated by the Irish company OceanEnergy and involves 14 organizations throughout academia and industry in the U.K., Ireland, France, Germany, and Spain. It will feature the OE35 floating wave energy converter (WEC), the largest WEC on the planet.
The OE35 will undergo a two-year test period at the European Marine Energy Centre on the coast of Orkney in northern Scotland. The device will float in the open water with an open lower part under the sea. Wave pressure will push trapped air in the above-water part of the device through a turbine, which will generate energy.
The project aims to demonstrate the efficiency, reliability, and scalability of wave energy technology and increase investment in the technology to potentially increase its use on a larger scale.
"This 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 industrialization," OceanEnergy Chief Technical Officer Tony Lewis said in a statement. "We predict that the natural energy of the world's oceans will one day supply much of the grid."
The OE35 still needs to be built, and the two-year demonstration phase is scheduled to begin in June 2025, after which the final phase of the project will concentrate on the commercialization and scaling up of the technology.
Like wind and solar, wave energy technology is just another way to produce electricity without dependence on dirty energy that results in carbon pollution, which contributes to the overheating of the planet, leading to more extreme weather events that can threaten lives and the global food supply.
The EU isn't the only government body investing in wave energy technology. The U.S. Department of Energy recently announced over $100 million in funding to develop new wave energy technology to figure out new ways to produce clean energy and create jobs in the process.
This is just another example of the work being done worldwide to advance wave energy conversion technology as yet another viable avenue as the world moves toward clean energy options.
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