WES Awards Grants to Four Wave Energy Developers

Four wave energy technology developers have secured a total of £2.84 million grant by Wave Energy Scotland (WES) after competing to join stage two of an innovative technology development programme.

The funding will support further design, modelling and testing of technologies being developed through WES’s Novel Wave Energy Converter (NWEC) programme.

WES selected the four projects as the most promising of eight applications from contractors in stage one of its NWEC programme, which focuses on solutions to capture wave movement.

They will now progress to stage two of the programme which is expected to run until autumn 2018.

Once the second stage concludes, the project teams can apply for stage three funding to develop a scaled prototype device for real sea testing at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney.

Tim Hurst, WES managing director, said: “Our competitive technology development process aims to bring forward projects that will promote greater confidence in the technical performance of wave energy systems. I am pleased to confirm our further support for these four projects through to the next stage of development and very much look forward to seeing how the project teams might further develop their wave energy converter designs.”