Carnegie Clean Energy, Hewlett Packard Enterprise push AI-driven wave energy tech with extended agreement

Australia’s wave energy developer Carnegie Clean Energy has extended collaboration with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) by two years, focusing on integrating advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing into the company’s CETO wave energy technology.

According to Carnegie Clean Energy, under the agreement, extended until November 2026, the company and HPE aim to further optimize the performance of the CETO technology, leveraging HPE’s expertise in AI and computing.

The partnership, ongoing since 2020, has focused on developing a reinforcement learning (RL)-based controller, enabling the CETO system to self-learn and improve its energy extraction from ocean waves in real time. Hewlett Packard Labs, HPE’s research group, has been integral to this work, pushing forward Carnegie Clean Energy’s efforts to make wave energy both more efficient and cost-effective, the company noted.

Carnegie Clean Energy’s RL controller, which was validated earlier this year through tank testing at the Cantabria Coastal and Ocean Basin, allows the CETO system to learn the optimal response to wave conditions, enhancing operational efficiency.

Both companies plan to test this controller in open ocean conditions as part of the EuropeWave-supported ACHIEVE program, which will deploy a CETO prototype at Spain’s Basque Marine Energy Platform (BiMEP) in 2025.

Jonathan Fiévez, Carnegie Clean Energy’s CEO, said: “The collaboration with HPE has been extremely rewarding with teams from both sides learning a lot. The work together has so far delivered a great outcome; however, it only scratches the surface in terms of what is possible from AI. With open ocean deployment occurring in the near future, it will be very exciting to see it in action and probably learning things about waves we didn’t expect!”

The ACHIEVE program, supported by EuropeWave, the Spanish Government, and the Basque Energy Agency, is said to play a key role in Carnegie Clean Energy’s efforts to demonstrate CETO’s capabilities in real-world conditions, moving closer to commercial deployment.

The CETO technology is a fully submerged, point-absorber wave energy device, consisting of a buoy that moves beneath the ocean’s surface, driven by wave motion. This orbital movement powers a PTO (power take-off) system, which in turn converts wave energy into electricity.

In related news, Carnegie Clean Energy contracted Lloyd’s Register in September to begin certification for CETO, underscoring the company’s efforts to validate its technology through a rigorous classification process.

Through its wholly-owned subsidiary CETO Wave Energy Ireland (CWEI), Carnegie Clean Energy recently received a progress payment of €251,100 under the EuropeWave Phase 3 contract.