Ocean Wave Rower wave energy device, developed by UK-based company Wave-tricity, has commenced sea trials off Pembrokeshire, Wales.
“A number of countries have good wave energy resources but until now lacked commercially viable technologies to convert the energy. We are confident that Wave-tricity’s products will soon become part of their energy generation mix”, said Matthew Fairclough-Kay , managing director of Wave-tricity.
“Our focus has been on ensuring that our energy devices are low maintenance and can survive for long periods of time at sea. The next few months of sea testing will determine how quickly we can take these potentially life-saving devices to market.”
Aside from producing wave energy, Ocean Wave Rower can also be utilised to offer a desalination solution and to assist Disaster Relief providing a rapidly deployable and robust platform from which to generate clean water and energy to disaster hit regions across the world, Wave-tricity said.
Last year, Wave-tricity was granted £4 million from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to develop and test Ocean Wave Rower.
In November 2016 , Mainstay Marine Solutions was contracted to build the wave energy device.