A 19.6 million partnership project, which aims to be the stepping stone towards large scale wave energy commercialisation, has received formal go-ahead from the European Union.
WEDUSEA is a pioneering collaboration between 14 partners, spanning industry and academia from across the UK, Ireland, France, Germany and Spain. It is co-ordinated by the Irish company OceanEnergy.
The project is co-funded by the EU Horizon Europe Programme and by Innovate UK, the UK's innovation agency.
In common with all other Horizon Europe projects, WEDUSEA has undergone a comprehensive independent review by EU appointed external experts following its initial project design period to ensure the technical designs and all plans, budgets and protocols are fully in place and approved.
The green light has now been received from the EU and the project can proceed to its next stage.
The WEDUSEA project will demonstrate a grid connected 1MW OE35 floating wave energy converter at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) wave energy test site at Billia Croo in Orkney, Scotland. A rigorous technical and environmental demonstration will happen over a two-year period in Atlantic wave conditions.
OceanEnergy has developed the OE35, which is the world's largest capacity floating wave energy device. Floating on the ocean's surface, the device incorporates a trapped air volume, with the lower part open to the sea. Wave pressures at the submerged opening cause the water to oscillate and drive the trapped air through a turbine to generate electricity. Electricity generated will be exported to the UK grid via EMEC's subsea cables.
Prof Tony Lewis, Chief Technical Officer at OceanEnergy, says: "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. However, this potential has yet to be fully realised. The project will demonstrate that wave technology is on a cost reduction trajectory and will thus be a stepping stone to larger commercial array scale up and further industrialisation. We predict that the natural energy of the world's oceans will one day supply much of the grid."
The WEDUSEA project has three phases. The first phase is the initial design and build of a device suited to the ocean conditions at EMEC's Billia Croo wave energy test site. This will be followed by the demonstration at the site, lasting two years. The final phase will be commercialisation and dissemination which sees the capitalisation and exploitation of the results.
Matthijs Soede from the European Commission said at the start of the project: "WEDUSEA is set to be a major catalyst for the wave energy industry, unlocking the full potential of this exciting renewable technology.
Prof Lars Johanning of University of Plymouth says: "The WEDUSEA partnership has worked hard to ensure that all detailed designs and planning are robust, to prove that the project is viable and that the project will be delivered within budget. Now we have received the green light from the EU, it's all systems go!"
The wave converter build starts in the second half of 2024 and the demonstration at EMEC is expected to begin in June 2025.
Disclaimer: Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CINEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
For more information contact press@wedusea.eu
BACKGROUND
THE WEDUSEA PARTNERSHIP PROJECT
WEDUSEA stands for: 'Wave Energy Demonstration at Utility Scale to Enable Arrays.'
This international partnership comprises the following 14 organisations:
- OCEAN ENERGY (NEW WAVE TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED) - IRELAND
- INNOSEA - FRANCE
- ADVANCED SIMULATION TECHNOLOGIES - SPAIN
- FRAUNHOFER GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG EV - GERMANY
- UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, CORK - IRELAND
- GAVIN AND DOHERTY GEOSOLUTIONS LTD - IRELAND
- EXCEEDENCE LTD - IRELAND
- WOOD - IRELAND
- HYDRO GROUP PLC - UK
- THE EUROPEAN MARINE ENERGY RESEARCH CENTRE - UK
- LONGITUDE CONSULTING ENGINEERS LIMITED - UK
- UNIVERSITY OF PLYMOUTH- UK
- INNOSEA LTD - UK
- GREEN MARINE (UK) LTD -UK
The website is www.wedusea.eu
PROJECT FUNDING
Total project value is 19,564,753
EU funding totals 9,636,874. This funding is from the EU Horizon Europe Programme, managed by The European Climate, Environment and Infrastructure Executive Agency (CINEA)
Innovate UK funding is 5,356,026
The balance is funded by the industry partners.
ABOUT CINEA
CINEA is the successor organisation of the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA). It started activities on 1 April 2021 in order to implement parts of certain EU programmes.
CINEA's mission is to support stakeholders in delivering the European Green Deal through high-quality programme management that helps to implement projects contributing to decarbonisation and sustainable growth.
CINEA fosters an efficient knowledge sharing and synergies between its different programmes and establishes strong partnerships with its stakeholders.
As part of its remit, CINEA deals with the implementation of the Horizon Europe Programme.
For more details, please visit: https://cinea.ec.europa.eu/index_en
ABOUT THE HORIZON EUROPE PROGRAMME
Horizon Europe is the EU's key funding programme for research and innovation with a budget of 95.5 billion for the period from 2021-2027. It tackles climate change, helps to achieve the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and boosts the EU's competitiveness and growth.
The programme facilitates collaboration and strengthens the impact of research and innovation in developing, supporting and implementing EU policies while tackling global challenges. It supports creating and better dispersing of excellent knowledge and technologies.
It creates jobs, fully engages the EU's talent pool, boosts economic growth, promotes industrial competitiveness and optimises investment impact within a strengthened European Research Area.
For more details, please visit:
ABOUT INNOVATE UK
Innovate UK drives productivity and economic growth by supporting businesses to develop and realise the potential of new ideas. They connect businesses to the partners, customers and investors that can help them turn ideas into commercially successful products and services and business growth.
Innovate UK fund business and research collaborations to accelerate innovation and drive business investment into R&D. Their support is available to businesses across all economic sectors, value chains and UK regions. Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation.
For more information visit: https://www.ukri.org/councils/innovate-uk/
ABOUT WAVE ENERGY
- Wave energy is a plentiful, renewable energy source. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) puts the potential annual global production at 29,500 TWh. This is almost ten times Europe's annual electricity consumption of 3,000 TWh.
- Wave energy is emission-free.
- While variable, wave energy is reliable, as waves are almost always in motion.
- Ocean waves exert a tremendous amount of power. In fact, waves have the highest energy density of renewable energy sources, compared to others like wind, solar, biomass and geothermal. This means that waves can be an important contributor to the world's "energy mix resilience."
- Many countries - including Australia, China, Denmark, Italy, Korea, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom and the USA - are currently developing wave energy.
- The US Energy Information Administration has calculated that the waves around the United States coasts could potentially provide 64% of that country's electricity.
- Indeed, the World Economic Forum has estimated that if wave energy was fully harnessed on a global basis, it could provide all of the world's electricity needs.
ABOUT OCEANENERGY
OceanEnergy, the trading name of New Wave Technologies Limited, is a specialised commercial company developing wave energy technology and is based in Cobh, Co. Cork, Ireland.
The company is developing its OE35 technology which has been extensively tested and is now at a stage where it is one of the most commercially viable technologies for harnessing the power of the oceans.
In a sister project, Ocean Energy USA, (a wholly owned subsidiary of Ocean Energy Group Ireland), deployed at the U.S. Navy's Wave Energy Test Site in Hawaii on 19th July 2024. The 826-ton wave energy convertor buoy will, after commissioning and testing onsite, be connected to the Hawaiian electricity grid by subsea cable. This utility-scale wave energy device measures 35 x 19 meters, has a draft of over 9 meters, and a potential rated capacity of up to 1.25 MW in electrical power production. (This $12 million project is part-funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland.)
The OE35 technology to be deployed by WEDUSEA in summer 2025 will include a different turbine - a Wells turbine - and will be adapted to suit the harsh Atlantic conditions at the EMEC site. For further information, please visit: https://oceanenergy.ie/
ABOUT THE EUROPEAN MARINE ENERGY CENTRE (EMEC)
EMEC is an innovation catalyst supporting the transition to a low carbon future, reducing the time, cost and risk in offshore R&D.
Established in Orkney in 2003, EMEC is the world's leading accredited test laboratory and inspection body for demonstrating wave and tidal energy converters, subsystems and components in real sea conditions. To date, more marine energy converters have been deployed in Orkney, Scotland, than at any other single site in the world with 22 wave and tidal energy clients (from 11 countries) having tested 35 marine energy devices. EMEC is committed to supporting the transition to net zero and has expanded activities into other sectors including green hydrogen, efuels, floating wind and islands' decarbonisation.
For the WEDUSEA project, EMEC will provide metocean, bathymetry and geophysical data to feed into the design criteria for the wave energy converter device and facilitate planning of offshore operations.
The deployment at EMEC's Billia Croo wave energy test site will enable collection of valuable data on performance and environmental impact. This will include a series of field campaigns spanning underwater and airborne acoustics, biophysical assessment of wave dynamics, fish aggregation and seabird analysis, assessing the connection between local species and technology operation. This data will build on existing environmental studies to provide regulators with improved understanding and reduced uncertainty around environmental impacts of wave energy.
For further information, please visit: https://www.emec.org.uk/
