RW Power resumes trials in the Atlantic

Norwegian company RW Power has redeployed its wave energy-powered seawater pumping device for a new round of trials at the PLOCAN test site.

The deployment of the company’s prototype took place on 1 October, 2020, following the implementation of design improvements, according to PLOCAN.

The move marks the continuation of the test period which began early in 2020 with the aim of proving the survivability of the device at sea.

The developers also plan to obtain the estimate of the prototype’s pumping capacity depending on the prevailing wave height during the trials.

The testing campaign, planned to last between three to six months, has been funded by the European Commission through the Blue-GIFT project within the Interreg Atlantic Area program.

One of the potential applications of the device is for the pumping of seawater into desalination plants located near the coast without the need for electric power.

A first stage of the project was carried out in 2016 and 2017 on the Atlantic coast of Norway, where an initial version of the device survived several endurance tests, according to PLOCAN.

Subsequently, a few different preliminary tests were carried out at the PLOCAN test site in 2018 and 2019, leading to the ongoing last phase of the trials.