Canary Islands kick off wave-powered desalination initiative

The Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN) has held the launch meeting of the European DESALIFE project. The project, led by Ocean Oasis Canarias, aims to validate a seawater desalination technology powered by wave energy that will be demonstrated in northern Gran Canaria.

Key partners in DESALIFE, short for Desalination for Environmental Sustainability and LIFE, include PLOCAN, the Canary Islands Technological Institute (ITC), the Renewable Energy Systems Research Group (GRRES) from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), environmental consultancy elittoral, and Ocean Oasis Canarias.

According to PLOCAN, the Gran Canaria Island Water Council (CIAGC) is participating as an associated entity and will manage the integration of freshwater produced by DESALIFE into the Arucas-Moya EDAM facility. The goal is to achieve an annual average desalination capacity of up to 2,000 m³/day, equivalent to the consumption needs of 15,000 people.

“The energy transition in the Canary Islands is urgent, and PLOCAN is committed to the DESALIFE project to promote and accelerate the technologies necessary to make it viable from a social, economic, and environmental point of view,” said PLOCAN Director, José Joaquín Hernández Brito.

The project, which has a budget of approximately €10 million, is co-financed with €5.9 million from the European Climate, Infrastructure, and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) under the Circular Economy and Quality of Life Program. It will run for five years.

Sebastián Feimblatt, Co-Founder of Ocean Oasis and CEO of its Canary Islands Delegation, said, “The importance of the institutions that have supported us in the development of this technology since we arrived in the Canary Islands three years ago, and the collaboration of both public and private institutions in the development of this project, will allow us to desalinate water using wave energy in a sustainable way.”

The DESALIFE project highlights the potential of wave-powered desalination as a sustainable and affordable solution for securing the island’s freshwater supply, PLOCAN noted. The floating technology is said to use a reverse osmosis process powered entirely by wave energy, eliminating reliance on grid electricity and avoiding CO2 emissions. 

According to PLOCAN, this approach also supports the Canary Islands’ decarbonization and energy independence by reducing the demand for conventional electricity in energy-intensive desalination processes.

Developed by the Ocean Oasis, the technology leverages expertise from Norway’s offshore industry. After being tested in the GAIA pilot buoy within the port of Las Palmas, DESALIFE is transitioning to a full-scale pre-commercial phase with production linked to the Arucas-Moya EDAM.

Beyond Gran Canaria, the project will assess the feasibility of replicating this model across other islands in the archipelago.