The Global Partnership for Ocean Wave Energy Technology (GPOWET) is a United Nations – Multi-Stakeholder Partnership formed to bring commercially-viable, utility scale ocean wave energy conversion (WEC) technology solutions.
The founding members, Martin & Ottaway (M&O), SurfWEC, and the Stakeholder Forum (SF), believe that by combining solar, wind, and wave systems, they can bring economic and social stability to global communities.
The long-term goal of the founding partners is to bring universities, other non-governmental organizations (NGOs), private/public companies with a vested interest in WEC systems, and United Nations member states to the partnership.
SurfWEC was formed in 2018 to bring WEC solutions to global communities. The SurfWEC system is said to be well-suited for wave climates such as those found in the Caribbean, South Pacific, Mediterranean, and similar mild to moderate annual average wave climates which experience episodic extreme storm events.
The GPOWET mission is to bring commercially-viable WEC systems to Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and other disadvantaged coastal communities which face challenges such as extremely high energy costs due to the need to transport fossil fuels long distances to power generators and vehicles.
By implementing SurfWEC solutions in the territorial water of SIDS and other coastal communities, the need for fossil fuels could be reduced and eventually eliminated, M&O says.
The GPOWET vision is to enable the SIDS and other disadvantaged communities to establish training, manufacturing, and operation and maintenance facilities for SurfWEC systems and export units to other locations in their regions in support of all 17 United Nations – Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).