Monday 4 November 2019

‘Low-costs and tech readiness needed for wave energy to make a splash by 2024’

The technical readiness and low-cost profiles of wave energy technologies will be key to harnessing power from the oceans in the UK by 2024.

That's the call from Globaldata Power Technology, which has studied a strategic collaboration agreement between UK-based offshore energy specialist Simply Blue Energy and Swedish wave energy developer CorPower Ocean.

It notes although wave power "shows a lot of promise", unique environmental and economic challenges mean few companies have successfully implemented the technology.

CorPower Ocean Commercial Director Anders Jansson said the main reason wave energy projects haven’t been commercially viable is because they’ve generally been too costly - he believes his firm can eliminate that cost and suggests this is the reason it will succeed.

He claims its buoy-based Wave Energy Converters use stored pressure to generate energy from waves in two directions, allowing the system to produce five times more energy than traditional wave technology with a smaller and cheaper device.

The devices also have a storm protection mode, improving their survivability and reducing maintenance costs, without having to rely on a complicated control system.