The US Department of Energy (DOE) on January 25 announced $25m in funding to support research, development and demonstration of technologies that harness wave power to create electricity. The funding will by shared by eight organizations for their projects designed to accelerate the commercial viability of wave energy technologies and deploy them at scale.
The eight projects fall into three categories: testing wave energy converter designs for use in geographically remote areas or on small, local energy grids; developing wave energy converter designs that can be either connected to or disconnected from the electricity grid; and performing R&D related to environmental monitoring technologies, instrumentation systems that operators use to control wave energy converters, and other technologies.
Selected projects are part of DOE’s Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) “Advancing Wave Energy Technologies through Open Water Testing at PacWave” funding opportunity. The PacWave South test site off the coast of Oregon will be used for open-water testing. Wave energy converters, which capture and convert waves into carbon-free electricity, require testing in realistic conditions to be deployed at scale.
“Harnessing the unrelenting power of the ocean is a clean, innovative and sustainable way to curtail carbon pollution,” said US Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “Diversifying and expanding our clean energy sources will usher in a new era of energy independence that makes the grid more resilient, curbs the climate crisis, and saves Americans money on their energy bills.”
