CalWave concludes wave energy pilot after 10 months with 99% uptime

US-based wave energy company CalWave Power Technologies has concluded its open-ocean wave energy pilot after 10 months of continuous operation off the coast of San Diego in California.

The project, which saw the deployment of x1 pilot wave energy device in September 2021, was supported by a US Department of Energy (DOE) with the goal of demonstrating CalWave’s scalable and patented wave energy technology as a cost-effective, sustainable solution for energy generation.

Not only does the demonstration represent California’s first at-sea, long-duration wave energy project, but it also serves as a critical step toward proving wave power as a commercially viable renewable resource.

The x1 pilot device has now been recovered and decommissioned, and the findings will be used to inform CalWave’s next grid-connected deployment, scheduled to occur at the federally-approved, 20MW PacWave wave energy test site off the coast of Newport in Oregon.

According to CalWave, its pilot project verified the xWave system as effective for overcoming the key challenges of performance, reliability, survivability, and cost.

Jennifer Garson, US DOE’s Water Power Technologies Office director, said: “Marine energy technologies – like CalWave’s xWave – hold incredible potential to help transform our energy system in numerous ways, from serving as a resource on our nation’s grid to helping remote and coastal communities reduce their reliance on fossil fuels to powering ocean exploration and observation systems.

“CalWave’s successful deployment in California marks a critical step in their pathway to commercializing their wave energy system and is an important step forward in the marine energy industry’s efforts to demonstrate and deploy these technologies.”

The The x1 wave energy achieved high performance as targeted and predicted by CalWave’s advanced and laboratory-validated hydrodynamic simulations, according to the company.

The onboard controller took over full autonomous operations for roughly 80% of the operating time, ensuring high performance and shutdown during storms, leading to over 99% system uptime throughout the deployment.

Based on high reliability of the system and zero interventions during operations, the deployment was extended from six months to 10 months, and concluded as required by CalWave’s U. DOE contract.

The results of the demonstration are critical for the advancement of CalWave’s x100 and x800 utility-scale classes of the xWave, the company said.

The fully-submerged xWave architecture enabled the technology to survive several major storms, including two representative of the largest storms in a typical 10-year period for a utility-scale system.

The unique wave load management mechanisms, comparable to pitch and yaw control in modern wind turbines, allowed for rapid and effective reduction of storm loads on all parts of the system, ultimately proving a cost-effective design without the need for expensive structural over-design, CalWave claims.

The x1’s hull was protected by environmentally acceptable anti-corrosion and anti-biofouling coatings, in addition to sacrificial anodes, which added cathodic protection against corrosion for uncoated surfaces.

While uncoated surfaces of the device did experience bio-fouling, growth avoided moving interfaces and had no impact on operations, CalWave informed.

Along with a third-party biological assessment, several state and federal permits ensured the safety of marine life.

In collaboration with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s (PNNL) Triton Initiative – a project funded by WPTO to research environmental monitoring technologies and methods – the x1 was observed with a Boxfish 360 video camera and three different sound monitoring tools.

The environmental monitoring data collected during the pilot has been made available for the public.

Other key operational and research partners collaborating with CalWave on this project included National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Sandia National Laboratories, DNV, MarineLabs and UC Berkeley, among many others.

In January 2022, CalWave was awarded the single largest award of $7.5 million from the US DOE’s latest $25 million commitment to accelerate ocean energy development to further develop their xWave technology for use on local energy grids and microgrids.

CalWave has been contracted to build a 100kW version of the xWave architecture for a two-year deployment off the coast of Oregon at PacWave South, the nation’s first accredited, grid-connected, pre-permitted wave energy test facility.

Marcus Lehmann, CalWave’s  CEO and co-founder, said: “Our pilot of the x1 provided us with critical results necessary to advance on the path towards commercialization. As offshore wind development is growing rapidly in the US and globally, we recognize the significant opportunities for wind and wave farm co-location. CalWave thanks the U.S. DOE, our hosts at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and many other partners and advisors that helped us during the planning, engineering and execution of the project.”

Malcolm Woolf, National Hydropower Association’s CEO, added: “CalWave’s deployment moves the industry one step closer to commercialization with a goal of 1GW of marine energy technology deployed by 2035. Marine energy is a missing link to fully decarbonizing America’s electrical grid, and we are encouraged by the progress CalWave has made in developing the next generation of renewable energy technology.”

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