EU backs Ocean Oasis with nearly €6M to advance wave energy-powered desalination tech 

A consortium led by the Norwegian company Ocean Oasis has secured a grant of nearly €6 million from the European Union (EU) to enhance the supply of desalinated water from floating buoys in deep water off the coast of Gran Canaria, Spain.

The European Executive Agency on Climate, Infrastructure, and Environment (CINEA) awarded the €5.9 million grant under the framework of the Circular Economy and Quality of Life Programme. According to Ocean Oasis, the project will be led by Ocean Oasis Canarias, a subsidiary of the company based in Gran Canaria.

The project, named Desalination for Environmental Sustainability and LIFE (DESALIFE) whose start date is expected to be January 1, 2025, aims to build and deploy the first fleet of Ocean Oasis’ offshore desalination buoys to provide water for 15,000 people in the Spanish island of Gran Canaria.

The main goal of DESALIFE is to qualify, prove, and validate a zero-emission desalination technology by piloting a small fleet of full-scale desalination buoys at the Arucas-Moya desalination plant in the Canary Islands, said the European Commission.

DESALIFE will also focus on the replicability and scalability of the desalination buoy solution in other water-scarce regions with wave energy potential, as well as on the exploitation of project results and new intellectual property.

DESALIFE’s consortium aims to have the first pre-commercial buoys producing freshwater by mid-2026.

The Ocean Oasis-led consortium includes the Canary Islands Institute of Technology (ITC), the Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN), the Group for the Research on Renewable Energy Systems (GRRES) at the Universidad of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), and the environmental consultancy elittoral.

 “The participation of the Gran Canaria Island Water Council in the DESALIFE project, within the scope of insular hydrological planning, represents a strong commitment to promoting and developing reference projects aimed at harnessing renewable energy resources, such as wave energy,” said Miguel Hidalgo, vice president of the Gran Canaria Island Water Council.

According to the European Commission, the DESALIFE project is estimated to produce 1.662 million cubic meters of emission-free fresh water during its piloting phase, thereby avoiding the emission of approximately 2,379 tons of CO2 equivalents by harnessing the renewable and inexhaustible energy of ocean waves.

‘Ocean Oasis’ buoys generate freshwater through membrane-based desalination powered by wave-induced motion, eliminating the need for grid power, emissions, and chemicals.

“At Ocean Oasis, we believe that renewable energy, particularly wave power, holds the key to a future where clean water is both accessible and abundant. The DESALIFE project represents a significant step forward in demonstrating our technology’s potential, not just for the Canary Islands, but for coastal communities worldwide,” said Kristine Bangstad Fredriksen, CEO and Co-founder of Ocean Oasis.

The Norwegian company’s pilot buoy, Gaia, was deployed offshore in November 2022, near the Port of Las Palmas to validate the technology, supported by co-funding from the European Innovation Council Accelerator, Innovation Norway, and other funders.