UK-based wave energy research and development start-up Aqua Power Technologies is currently conducting tests on its wave energy prototype in North West England.
Aqua Power Technologies is testing one of its semi-submersible multi axis wave energy converter prototypes at Windermere lake, the company informed on social media.
The units are designed to absorb forces from the peaks and troughs of the waves in any given direction, as claimed by Aqua Power Technologies.
Later this year, the company is expected to deploy two fully operational units off the coast of Shetland and the Orkney Isles for pre-commercial trials, according to Shell LiveWIRE.
After the ocean energy trials, Aqua Power Technologies plans to start selling its wave energy units later in 2018, Sam Etherington said in an interview for Shell LiveWIRE back in April 2017.
The development and trials of the company’s wave energy technology has been supported through the completion of private investments of £300,000, an Innovate UK grant, and an EU-backed FORESEA program funding – all awarded in March 2017.
FORESEA support will cover part of the costs of demonstrating ocean energy technologies at the European Marine Energy Center (EMEC) in Orkney.
Shell LiveWIRE is one of Shell’s Social Investment Programs that supports innovative young entrepreneurs in the UK with ideas that meet the energy and resource needs of a fast-growing population.
Sam Etherington, the founder of Aqua Power Technologies, won the Shell LiveWIRE Future Impact Award in 2014.