WES awards £3 million for wave energy projects

 
Wave Energy Scotland (WES) has allocated £3 million to ten projects as part of the funding call focused on structural materials and manufacturing processes for wave energy technology.

The WES funded Structural Materials and Manufacturing Process (SMMP) projects will investigate the use of materials such as rubbers, plastics, concrete or combinations of these to build wave energy converters, and then test how well they survive in different sea conditions.

The ten projects were awarded up to £250,000 each, and include CorPower Ocean-led project HydroComp; RePOWER project with Cruz Atcheson Consulting Engineers as lead partner; ARMOR project led by Haydale Composite Solution; CREATE project headed by Ove Arup & Partners; PolyGen-led project ARMWET.

Also, Quoceant-led project called ACE-WEC has been backed by WES, as well as Polyshell project with Technology From Ideas as lead partner; NetBuoy project led by Tension Technology International; and two projects headed by the University of Edinburgh called ELASTO, RotoHybrid.

Paul Wheelhouse, Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy, said: “Continued innovation is vital in emerging renewable technologies such as wave energy. This funding could result in longer lasting wave converters that are better able to harness the power of the sea and more efficiently turn it into renewable energy.”

Tim Hurst, Managing Director of Wave Energy Scotland, added: “The successful projects present a superb opportunity to bring further skills and experience that can be shared with others in the WES programs and make further progress towards commercializing the wave energy sector.”

The full list of projects with the descriptions can be viewed here.

Wave Energy Scotland was set up as a subsidiary of Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) in December 2014 and is fully funded by the Scottish Government.