EU-backed project to advance wave energy farms sets start date

September 10, 2025, by Zerina Maksumić

The EU has awarded €4 million under Horizon Europe to the Control-Oriented Innovations for future wave energy farms (COIN) project, which is set to start on November 1, 2025.

Illustration/CETO wave energy array (Courtesy of Carnegie Clean Energy)

Coordinated by Technische Universitaet Braunschweig in Germany, the four-year initiative aims to bring ocean energy technologies to technology readiness level (TRL) 5, responding to the Horizon Europe call on critical technologies for future ocean energy farms.

“Wave energy is one of the most promising renewable energy sources, yet it faces major technical and economic hurdles,” said Christian Windt, Project Coordinator at TU Braunschweig.

“COIN addresses these by introducing novel control solutions—hardware and software—that are essential to building efficient and resilient wave energy farms.”

According to WavEC, the project will deliver three core innovations. A new connector system for mooring and subsea infrastructure will be developed using a control co-design approach to reduce peak loads and prevent damage. An AI-based wave prediction system will combine radar and buoy data to generate second-by-second forecasts. Additionally, a digital twin framework will be developed for health monitoring, predictive maintenance, and adaptive control to enhance availability and energy yield.

Carnegie Clean Energy’s CETO device will be used as the reference technology for testing and validation. CETO is a fully submerged point absorber that captures orbital wave motion, featuring a rotary power take-off and subsea configuration designed to demonstrate COIN’s innovations under realistic marine conditions.

EU backs €4M wave energy research with Carnegie as tech partner

Business Developments & Projects

The consortium brings together nine partners from across Europe, WavEC said. Alongside TU Braunschweig and Carnegie Technologies Spain, the group includes IFP Energies nouvelles from France, Mondragon Goi Eskola Politeknikoa from Spain, WavEC Offshore Renewables from Portugal, Aalborg Universitet from Denmark, Politecnico di Torino from Italy, Quoceant from the UK and Hewlett-Packard Galway from Ireland.

According to the partners, COIN could cut the levelized cost of energy from wave by up to 30%. The project also aligns with the EU’s Strategic Energy Technology Plan and the European Green Deal.