Wave energy developer Calwave has successfully concluded its open-ocean wave energy pilot after 10 months of continuous operation off the coast of San Diego in California, US, with zero intervention and 99% uptime.
The project, which deployed in September 2021, was supported by a US Department of Energy (DOE) award with the goal to demonstrate CalWave’s scalable and patented xWave™ technology as a cost-effective, sustainable solution for energy generation.
The pilot device, named x1™, has now been recovered and decommissioned. Findings will be used to inform CalWave’s next grid-connected deployment, scheduled to occur at the federally-approved, 20MW PacWave wave energy test site off the coast of Newport, Oregon.
“Marine energy technologies – like CalWave’s xWave – hold incredible potential to help transform our energy system in numerous ways, from serving as a resource on our nation’s grid to helping remote and coastal communities reduce their reliance on fossil fuels to powering ocean exploration and observation systems,” said Jennifer Garson, U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office Director. “CalWave’s successful deployment in California marks a critical step in their pathway to commercializing their wave energy system and is an important step forward in the marine energy industry’s efforts to demonstrate and deploy these technologies.”
Other key operational and research partners collaborating with CalWave on this project included National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, DNV GL, MarineLabs and UC Berkeley, among many others.
