Twelve next-generation marine energy projects are set to benefit from $25 million in funding from the US Department of Energy (DOE)’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Water Power Technologies.

The projects, which will reduce capital costs and accelerate the innovation cycle by testing new concepts, were chosen from across three topic areas: early stage device design research; controls and power take off design integration and testing; and dissemination of environmental data and analyses to facilitate the marine energy regulatory process

The first two topics aim to address fundamental scientific and engineering challenges of generating power from dynamic, low-velocity and high-density waves and currents. The third topic area is targeted to provide better information to reduce the costs and time to permit projects.

Early Stage Device Design Research                         

  • Oscilla Power, Inc of Seattle, Washington will demonstrate the effectiveness its wave energy converter through open-ocean scaled testing in partnership with the University of Maine.
  • Atargis Energy Corporation of Pueblo, Colorado will advance its wave energy converter through numerical simulations at the model scale, as well as 1:20 scale wave tank tests.
  • Columbia Power Technologies, Inc of Charlottesville, Virginia will design and test a prototype low-power wave energy converter that reduces costs and provides a quickly deployable mobile power system for maritime sensors, monitoring, and communications equipment.
  • Littoral Power Systems, Inc of Fall River, Massachusetts will improve on its turbine design to increase power, reduce costs, and test a fully integrated sub-scale prototype that is ready for pilot site installation.
  • University of Hawaii at Manoa, of Honolulu, Hawaii will advance its wave energy converter concept and conduct testing in the open ocean.
  • North Carolina State University of Raleigh, North Carolina will develop integrated numerical models and open water experimental prototypes for an energy-harvesting ocean kite system.
  • Texas A&M University of College Station, Texas will develop and test a scaled prototype of its surface-riding wave energy converter which will be ready for open-sea testing at the end of the project.
  • Florida Atlantic University of Boca Raton, Florida will develop and prototype a low-flow marine current turbine to provide partial power to recharge battery banks onboard an unmanned mobile at-sea recharge station for aerial drones and potentially other unmanned marine vehicles.

Controls and Power Take Off Design Integration and Testing

  • Portland State University of Portland, Oregon will demonstrate a newly-invented adjustable magnetic spring that allows for greater power adjustability and controllability.
  • CalWave Power Technologies, Inc of Berkeley, California will improve on its sub-scale prototype by integrating a new control architecture to improve costs and efficiency.
  • AWS Ocean Energy Inc of Wilmington, Delaware will optimize a prototype hydraulic/electrical system and demonstrate performance in a laboratory environment.

Dissemination of Environmental Data and Analyses to Facilitate the Marine Energy Regulatory Process

  • Kearns and West of San Francisco, California will develop a marine and hydrokinetic energy environmental permitting toolkit that includes a spatial, regulatory, and document database of information. The project will address the complexities of permitting processes through a consolidation and dissemination of relevant and actionable information needed for efficient permitting.

“Advancing next-generation marine energy will help the US ensure a secure, reliable, and enduring supply of American energy,” said Under Secretary of Energy Mark Menezes. “These early-stage research and development projects are key to the development of water power as part of DOE’s ‘all-of-the-above’ energy strategy.”