The European Union has approved the €19.6m WEDUSEA project, which aims to be a stepping stone towards the production of large scale wave energy.
The wave energy commercialisation project is a collaboration between 14 partners from the UK, Ireland, France, Germany and Spain, and is coordinated by Ocean Energy, a developer of renewable energy within the wave energy industry.
The project is co-funded by EU-Horizon Europe Programme and Innovate UK.
All Horizon Europe funded project must undergo a comprehensive independent review by the EU’s external experts to ensure all technical designs, plans, budgets, and protocols are all in place and approved.
The project has now received the green light from the EU and can proceed to the next stages of development.
The first stage is the design and construction of a 1MW OE35 floating wave energy convertor for use at the Billia Croo wave energy test site in Orkney, off the coast of Scotland.
The 1MW OE35 converter will then be tested at the European Marine Energy Centre over a two-year period.
The final phase of the WEDUSEA project is commercialisation and dissemination of the results.
OceanEnergy said the OE35 is the largest capacity floating wave energy device in the world. It generates electricity using wave pressures that drive trapped underwater air through a turbine. The electricity generated will then be transmitted through EMEC’s subsea cables.
The construction of the 1MW OE35 is expected to begin in the second half of 2024 with testing expected to begin in June 2025.
Tony Lewis, chief technical office of OceanEnergy, said wave energy projects such as WEDUSEA will demonstrate that wave energy is on “a cost reduction trajectory” and will act as a stepping stone to scale up and further industrialisation.
“Wave energy is the world’s most valuable renewable resource with around 30TWh of potential annual production waiting to be harnessed. That’s almost ten times Europe’s annual electricity consumption,” Lewis said.
According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, total marine energy capacity reached 508.1MW in 2023.
