Innovate UK grants $1.9 million for wave energy project in Thailand

Swedish-Israeli wave energy developer Eco Wave Power Global (EWP) has announced winning a £1.5 million grant (almost $1.9 million) as a part of a consortium led by UK-based Toshiba and Aquatera, to design a pilot microgrid project for a remote island in Thailand.

The grant is a part of round ten of Innovative UK’s Energy Catalyst program, which supports the UK and international businesses and organizations that develop market-focused technologies that provide energy.

The consortium is led by Toshiba, and Aquatera and also includes Hitachi Energy, and teams from the University of Manchester, the University of Exeter, the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), as well as the Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). 

“I am excited to start our second phase of this project after our successful initial feasibility study. We would like to thank Innovate UK for the generous funding, which can pave the way for the commercialization of all novel technologies we have researched for years. I also believe with our great partners we can achieve all of our objectives in this project,” said Kamyar Mehran, the project investigator from QMUL. 

This consortium is set to utilize onshore wave energy converters (WECs) developed by EWP and implement technology developed by the above-mentioned consortium partners.

The new technology that is set to be developed as a part of the project will include the development and deployment of novel and predictive control systems, a radar system to forecast wave heights, an AI-based load and generation prediction system, and a wireless energy management system to provide electricity without the lithium-ion batteries. 

“This is a second grant from Innovate UK for the development and commercialization 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,” said Guang Li, a professor at the University of Manchester. 

“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, customized for islands and other micro grid applications, which are a significant target market for Eco Wave Power,” said Inna Braverman, Founder and CEO of Eco Wave Power.

Together with AIT, Aquatera will be active in seeking additional public, as well as private investment for similar pilot projects in Thailand’s islands, and even neighboring Southeast Asian countries that have the potential for wave energy pilots.

In terms of recent news coming from the company, in January, Eco Wave Power commenced sending clean electricity from its EWP-EDF One project to the Israeli National Electrical grid.

The company recently finalized the construction of the EWP-EDF One project in the Port of Jaffa which has a 100 KW installed capacity and is comprised of 10 floaters. The project was co-funded by EDF Renewable IL, which owns 50% of the project, and by the Israeli Ministry of Energy.

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