Wave energy technology developer Mocean Energy has secured over £3 million EU funding to develop and deploy a 250kW wave machine in Orkney.
The wave energy device – named Blue Horizon 250 – will be manufactured in Scotland and deployed in a grid-connected berth at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney as early as 2025.
It’s hoped the project could then pave the way to a small wave farm delivering 1-2 MW of low-carbon electricity by 2030, Mocean Energy said.
The Edinburgh firm has been awarded £3.2 million (€3,749,405) in Phase 3 of EuropeWave, a pre-commercial procurement program, funded through the EU and managed in collaboration with Wave Energy Scotland, the Basque Energy Agency and Ocean Energy Europe.
Mocean Energy is one of three wave companies to have been awarded funds in Phase 3, each of which has successfully passed through competitive stage gates in Phases 1 and 2 of the programme.
The other successful companies are IDOM Consulting and CETO Wave Energy Ireland, who will install their devices at the Biscay Marine Energy Platform (BiMEP) in northern Spain.
“This is a major milestone for Mocean Energy,” states company co-founder and Managing Director Cameron McNatt.
“We have already demonstrated our technology successfully at small scale and this programme will allow us to build a significantly larger machine based on our proven hinged raft design, and incorporate our novel direct drive generator.
“We are already working with a range of supply chain partners across Scotland and the UK who bring tremendous experience and professionalism to the wave energy sector, and I am confident we have the right suppliers on board to bring this ambitious project to fruition.
“Innovation funding is crucial for early-stage technologies, and I am grateful to EuropeWave for this support which will help leverage the additional private investment this project will require.
“Looking further ahead, our goal is to deliver a small array in UK waters this decade, and I am confident that with appropriate innovation funding in place we can realize our ambition to build commercial wave energy arrays and generate home-grown green energy from our seas, both in the UK and around the world,” McNatt says.