Demonstration of sustainable wave energy farms
Deadline: 16 January 2024
Expected Outcome:
Project results are expected to contribute to all the following expected outcomes :
- De-risking wave energy technology development and increased bankability/ insurability of wave energy.
- Increased availability and improved market confidence in the technology.
- Increased knowledge on positive and negative impacts of ocean energy on its environment and in the case of negative impacts to protected habitats and species proposals for necessary mitigation measures.
- Publicly available data collected from the demonstration/pilot structure including support structure.
Scope:
Demonstration of sustainable wave energy pilot farms in full operational conditions for long periods of time is essential to advance this sector. It is the way to bridge the gap from technology development to market development while reducing costs, reducing risks and attracting investors for future commercial projects. The farms should be composed of several devices of the same type.
The wave energy farms have to be connected to the electricity grid. To focus on the technologies with the greatest chances of success, the single wave energy device to be used in the array deployment is expected to be satisfactory demonstrated at full scale, with limited changes to incorporate the learnings. Any change in the wave energy device may be incremental but should not involve fundamental changes to the device design or composition. The innovation component should mainly lie on the pilot farm systems and supporting industrial manufacturing activities that enable a cost-effective and high performance pilot farm.
