Swedish start-up collects multi-million EU grant for full-scale wave energy device

Swedish company Novige has been selected by the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) to receive a multi-million euro grant to build its full-scale wave energy device.

Through CINEA’s LIFE program – the European Union’s funding instrument for the environment and climate action – Novige has secured a little over €2.1 million to develop its full-scale wave energy device dubbed NoviOcean NO500.

According to Novige, the grant will cover a substantial portion of the costs for the design, construction and deployment of the 500kW-rated machine.

The 38-meter device will feature a rectangular float, capable of lifting force of 600 tons in a four-meter wave. This is multiple times more than any other concept currently available, and according to the company, one of the reasons for its ‘exceptional numbers’.

The lifting force pushes the high-pressure water onto the Pelton turbine, turning the generator and producing clean electricity.

The device itself is a floating non-resonant point absorber wave energy converter which extracts energy from the vertical motion of the waves. Aside from the rectangular float, the other main feature of Novige’s design is the inverted hydro power plant power take-off (PTO) system.

Jan Skjoldhammer, founder and CEO of Novige, said: “We are exiting to now move forward towards technology readiness level (TRL) 7, and the deployment of our first full-scale unit of 500kW rated power.

“I am thankful to Novige’s dedicated team which has worked hard for several years to reach this stage. We have also had the pleasure of working with three universities and 50 MSc and PhD students over the years, who have provided highly valued input to our work.

“We are now working on the design of our NoviOcean NO500 while simultaneously performing three months of sea testing in the Stockholm archipelago of our prototype named NO2. This gives valuable input in the wear and tear of all parts as well as information of how to finetune all components and the control system.”

Novige’s 1:5 scale NoviOcean NO2 device, deployed for trials in March 2022, will undergo various tests focused on durability and wear of the device, its upgraded control system, output, moorings and the ability to operate fully remotely controlled.

The main goal is to confirm that all systems can function without any major problem, as well as to validate the performance data obtained earlier.

However, the construction of the full-scale device is expected to begin in 2023, according to Novige which confirmed the design activities are currently in full swing, adding that the deployment of the first unit is expected in 2025.

Novige sees its NoviOcean solution as one of the technologies that will play an important part in the energy transition and decarbonization of the global energy mix.

The technology is said to be capable of generating power at sites with lower energy potential, offering 50% capacity factor at locations with medium wave energy potential. However, the company plans to develop larger multi-megawatt machines in the future.

“Capacity factor is calculated to be 50% in a medium location like Portugal. This 500kW machine will be the focus for quite a few years, but later, we will focus on larger devices of 2MW and over,” Skjoldhammer added.

After fully constructing, deploying and certifying the full-scale pilot in 2025, Novige plans to start with the commissioning of pre-commercial wave energy arrays featuring 3-6 units, while conducting comprehensive subsystem and array certification.

As a market for its technology, Novige is targeting areas with strong subsidies for CAPEX/OPEX/FIT, like the European Union or Canada, as well as islands and remote locations with high electricity prizes due to off-grid diesel reliance.

As the technology matures and reaches the costs lower than those for offshore wind, Novige intends to gradually move to other areas with less need for subsidies.

Aside from remote island and off-grid communities, the potential customers for Novige’s solution include local shipyards and manufacturers, utility companies, oil and gas players – that could use the device to provide clean power to their offshore platforms – and offshore wind farm owners, which could stabilize their output using hybrid wind/wave technologies.

“For one or more partners coming on board in early stage, this will be the absolute optimum showcase for the company’s honest ambitions for a transition to a greener world.

“In other words, we are inviting utilities, shipyards, industrial and oil and gas companies to start a dialogue with us earlier than they normally would, and learn more about the obvious win-win by developing together and co-funding the project,” Skjoldhammer concluded.

Novige is holding a demonstration event north of Stockholm to showcase its NO2 device in action. The event will be held on May 20 and 24, 2022. Novige has encouraged the interested parties to reach out for more information.

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