EuropeWave unveils top 3 wave energy finalists

The EuropeWave project has selected three finalists – CETO Wave Energy Ireland, IDOM Consulting and Mocean Energy – to fabricate, deploy and demonstrate their prototype designs in the third and final phase of the collaborative wave energy project.

The supported projects will share a budget of €13.4 million to continue the development of their wave energy device concepts.

Following a thorough evaluation of the designs developed by the five projects in the second phase of the program, which concluded at the end of June 2023, the three successful projects progressing to phase 3 are ACHIEVE, developed by CETO Wave Energy Ireland; MARMOK Atlantic, run by IDOM Consulting; and Mocean Energy’s Blue Horizon 250.

The two projects that did not proceed to the final phase are Arrecife Energy Systems’  Trimaran and AMOG Consulting’s Sea-Saw WEC.

In this final phase, the projects will complete their designs, before fabricating a prototype which will be deployed for a one-year demonstration and operational test program. Testing will take place at the open-water facilities of Biscay Marine Energy Platform (BiMEP) in the Basque Country and European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Scotland.

Tim Hurst, managing director of Wave Energy Scotland (WES), said: “The success of the EuropeWave project demonstrates the power of a structured, competitive, and collaborative program to drive innovation in wave energy. It de-risks technology quickly and builds the confidence that will be required by investors as we move to commercialization.”

Endika Aldaiturriaga, project manager from Ente Vasco de la Energia (EVE), added: “I am very proud to say that the five technology development teams in Phase 2 of the EuropeWave project have shown an outstanding performance and significantly progressed their innovations. With the announcement of the top three technologies moving forward, we have now hit a critical program milestone, where they will now proceed to the manufacturing and open-sea deployment of their systems at BiMEP and EMEC.”

Welcoming the announcement, Rémi Gruet, CEO of Ocean Energy Europe, said: “Identifying the most promising solutions from a sea of emerging technologies is essential to kick-start this new industry and deploy more renewables at scale.

“The EuropeWave approach delivers faster, high-value technology development for public funders, and enables wave energy developers to reach the commercial stage more quickly. Now is the time to build on EuropeWave’s success and to plan in earnest for a follow-up program.”

EuropeWave combines a classic Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) program with the ‘stage-gate’ process developed by the International Energy Agency – Ocean Energy Systems (IEA-OES). This innovative dual approach is expected to deliver best value for public procurement bodies, and help to accelerate wave energy technology development.

The project is developed in partnership WES and EVE and combines almost €20 million of national, regional and EU funding to advance the emerging wave energy sector.

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