Wave Energy Scotland

Wave Energy Scotland (WES) is a technology development body^{[clarification needed]} set up by the Scottish Government to facilitate the development of wave energy in Scotland. It was set up in 2015 and is a subsidiary of Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) based in Inverness.

WES has managed numerous projects resulting from pre-commercial procurement funding calls in six main topic areas. Each of these uses a stage-gate process, with fewer successful projects passing to later stages. WES has also commissioned eight landscaping studies in two phases.^[1]

Inception

The Scottish Government took positive action to support the ailing wave energy sector in Scotland, following the demise of one of the leading developers Pelamis Wave Power. The Energy Minister Fergus Ewing announced an initial budget for the body of £14.3 million over 13 months at the RenewableUK conference in February 2015.^[2]

Organisation objectives

The original objectives for WES were set out by the Scottish Government as:^[3]

• Seek to retain the intellectual property and know-how from device development in Scotland for future benefit;
• Enable Scotland’s indigenous technologies to reach commercial readiness in the most efficient and effective manner, and in a way that allows the public sector to exit in due course;
• Ensure that the learning gained from support for wave device development and deployment to date, in particular the learning from Scotland’s leading wave technologies, is retained and used to benefit the wave energy industry;
• Avoid duplication in funding, encourage collaboration between companies and research institutes and foster greater standardisation across the industry;
• Ensure value for money from public sector investment; and
• Promote greater confidence in the technical performance of wave energy systems in order to encourage the return of private sector investment.
• Promote innovation in wave energy technology and encourage collaboration between industry, academia, and government

Stage gate selections

The WES development programme uses a series of stage-gates to evaluate technology progress.

Through collaboration with the International Energy Agency's Ocean Energy Systems programme, Wave Energy Scotland has helped to develop "An International Evaluation and Guidance Framework for Ocean Energy Technology", first published in 2021.^[4] This sets out a clear evaluation methodology for the technical development and cost-effectiveness of wave and tidal energy technologies. A second edition was published in October 2023, adding the important aspect of environmental acceptability which had been missing from the first draft.^[5]

The framework consists of six sequential stages of development, which is equivalent to those used in the IEC guidelines for testing early stage WECs,^[6] and can be linked to the widely-used Technology Readiness Level (TRL) scale.

Project calls

The WES development programme uses a staged approach with projects progressing from concept (stage 1), through design (stage 2), to demonstration (stage 3). As of April 2024^[update], WES has held funding calls to start five development programmes, listed below.^[7] The successful projects in each stage are tabulated in List of projects funded by Wave Energy Scotland.

In 2023, a sixth area of Next Generation Wave Energy was introduced.

Power Take-off (PTO)

In March 2015, WES announced the fist call of their development programme, for innovative power take-off systems. Depending on the status of the technology, projects of £100k to £4m were sought, with successful applicants eligible to claim 100% of the cost of development.^[8] A total of 42 applications were made for this £7m call, with contracts awarded to nine consortia.^[9][10]

• In July 2016, a total of 16 Power Take-Off projects were awarded, with over £7m total funding.^[11]
  • Nine projects in Stage 1, at around £90k each.
  • Five projects directly into Stage 2, at between £300k and £500k each.
  • One project starting in Stage 3, the CorPower Ocean HiDrive project with £1.9m in funding.

• In September 2016, four of the nine PTO Stage 1 projects progressed to Stage 2, each awarded funding of around £490k.^[12]
• In March 2017, three of the original Stage 2 projects progressed to Stage 3, with nearly £2.5m funding each.^[13]
• In February 2018, one of the original Stage 1 projects also progressed to Stage 3 an was awarded £2.5m.^[14]

Novel Wave Energy Converter Call (NWEC)

In June 2015, the second call was announced, this time for "truly novel" wave energy converters.^[15] Eight projects were funded for the first stage of the NWEC call, out of 37 applications.^[16]

• In November 2015, eight projects were each awarded between £250k-£300k for 12 month NWEC Stage 1 projects, a total of £2.25m in funding.^[17]
• Four of these projects progressed to Stage 2 in April 2017, awarded around £700k in further funding.^[18]
• In January 2019, Mocean Energy and AWS Ocean Energy were awarded £7.7m between them for Stage 3 projects.^[19] Both companies planned to build half-scale devices and test them at the European Marine Energy Centre in real-sea conditions.

Structural Materials and Manufacturing Processes Call

A third call for Structural Materials and Manufacturing Processes was launched in July 2016, looking for materials for the WEC structure or prime mover that would facilitate a step change reduction in LCOE.^[20]

• In January 2017, 10 awards of around £250k each were made, for 12 month Stage 1 projects.^[21]
• In July 2018, three of these projects progressed to Stage 2, with a further £1.4m in funding between them.^[22]
• In March 2020, two projects then progressed to Stage 3: one Project led by Arup investigating the use of concrete as a structural material, the second led by Tension Technology International will look into a flexible buoyant pod.^[23]

Control Systems

In April 2017, a call on feasibility studies for Control System was announced, particularly welcoming experience from other related sectors. This was for initial projects of up to £47k lasting three months.^[24]

• In September 2017, 13 projects were awarded at Stage 1, with a total budget of £660k.^[25]
• Three of these projects progressed to Stage 2 in March 2018.^[26]
• In May 2019, two then progressed to Stage 3, sharing a budget of almost £1m.^[27]

Quick Connection System

A call was launched in July 2019 for systems that facilitate rapid connection and disconnection of a WEC from the moorings/electrical system, which was expected to speed up installation and operations, both leading to reduced costs.^[28]

• Seven projects were awarded at Stage 1 in December 2019.^[29]
• Of these, four progressed to Stage 2 in July 2020.^[30]
• Three then progressed to Stage 3 in July 2021, with almost £1.8m in funding.^[31]

Next Generation Wave Energy

In July 2023, a call was launched for concept designs that would directly convert motion into electricity, harnessing novel flexible electrostatic polymers and elastomers.^[32] Five projects were awarded up to £50k for 12-14 week concept designs investigating dielectric elastomer generators, and dielectric fluid generators.^[33]

Intellectual property

WES has acquired intellectual property developed by the now defunct Scottish wave energy companies Pelamis Wave Power and Aquamarine Power. The former as part of the inception of Wave Energy Scotland, whilst the latter was completed in September 2016.^[34]

Annual conference

With the exception of 2020 and 2021, WES has held an annual conference since 2016 to showcase progress in the sector.^[35]

The first Wave Energy Scotland annual conference was held on 2 December 2016 at Pollock Halls in Edinburgh.^[36] This provided an update of ongoing and future calls, plus quick-fire updates from participants ongoing PTO and NWEC calls.

A second annual conference was held on 28 November 2017.^[37]

The third annual conference was held on 6 December 2018 at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.^[38]

External links

• Wave Energy Scotland website

See also

• Wave power
• Renewable energy in the United Kingdom
• List of wave power projects
• Marine energy
• Renewable energy in Scotland

References

This page was last edited on 8 April 2024, at 02:10