The European Union has given the green light to the €19.6 million WEDUSEA project, an initiative designed to advance the commercial production of large-scale wave energy.
The WEDUSEA project underwent a thorough review by the European Union’s external experts to ensure that all technical designs, plans, budgets, and operational protocols were sound. Following this independent assessment, the EU approved the project, allowing it to advance to its next stages.
OceanEnergy, the project’s coordinator, described the WEDUSEA venture as a vital step toward unlocking the full potential of wave energy. “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,” Tony Lewis, Chief Technical Officer at OceanEnergy, said.
The first stage of the project will focus on designing and constructing a 1MW OE35 floating wave energy converter. This device will be deployed at the Billia Croo wave energy test site, located off the coast of Scotland in Orkney. Once constructed, the OE35 will be tested over two years at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC).
The OE35, touted as the world’s largest floating wave energy converter, generates electricity by harnessing wave pressure to drive trapped underwater air through a turbine. The generated electricity will then be transmitted via EMEC’s subsea cables. Construction of the OE35 is scheduled to commence in the latter half of 2024, with testing expected to start by June 2025.
The final phase will focus on the commercial application of the OE35 and the dissemination of its results. Lewis emphasized the potential of projects like WEDUSEA to demonstrate that wave energy is on a “cost reduction trajectory” and can serve as a foundation for scaling up industrial wave energy production.
