Scottish wave energy projects receive Government funding

The Scottish Government initiative Wave Energy Scotland (WES) has announced the eight successful applicants that will share a £2.5m fund to advance their technologies in the build up to commercialisation.


A tube-like wave train, an automatically inflatable conversion machine, and an anaconda-like tube are among the projects receiving around £300,000 each to improve performance and efficiency levels. See the full list here.

Scotland Energy Minister Fergus Ewing said: “I am delighted that Wave Energy Scotland, our unique body which brings together the best engineering and academic minds in a collaborative research and development programme to accelerate wave technology, is continuing to attract global interest from across Europe and beyond.

“These novel projects will bring us closer to developing a successful wave energy industry with Scotland firmly at the helm.”

The eight projects were chosen to complete Stage One of a concept optimisation funding project, after WES received 37 applicants from companies and consortia located all around Europe. The eight selected projects, 5 of which are from Scotland, will have 100% of their development costs covered by the grants.

Tim Hurst, the managing director of Wave Energy Scotland said: “WES has again received a wide international interest in the call for novel wave energy converters with 169 organisations involved in the applications. Wave and tidal energy represent a significant opportunity for the whole of the UK.

“The quality of applications from UK based companies and consortia reflected their knowledge and experience in wave energy technology development. These new partnerships represent a superb opportunity to work with a wider spread of companies and academia to develop the winning wave energy converter design.”

The same wavelength

Successful project were deemed to have been improvements on current concepts, or new technologies altogether. Affordability, reliability, durability and performance were assessed during the evaluation process. WES will support the technologies through different development stages.

WES announced the cfirst round of its funding allocation in August this year, handingd £7m to 16 wave energy developers to help them commercialise their technologies. Contracts ranged from £78,000 for concept optimisation, up to £2m for later stage prototype development.

A report, published in the journal Renewable Energy, back in January suggested that large-scale wave energy is comparatively more reliable, consistent and potentially cheaper than other forms of energy generation, including wind power.

Matt Mace

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