by Brianna Crandall — November 18, 2016 — The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) just announced AquaHarmonics as the winner of the Wave Energy Prize, which comes with a $1.5 million grand prize. CalWave Power Technologies and Waveswing America were awarded second and third place, respectively, with $500,000 and $250,000 in cash prizes. With more than 50 percent of the U.S. population living within 50 miles of coastlines, there is vast potential to provide clean, renewable electricity to communities and cities across the United States using wave energy, says EERE.
An 18-month design-build-test competition, the Wave Energy Prize focuses on catalyzing the development of game-changing wave energy converters that will ultimately reduce the cost of wave energy. According to EERE, wave energy technology could one day provide clean, cost-competitive, reliable energy for homeowners, communities, businesses, and government in geographically suited parts of the United States.
Out of 92 teams registering in April 2015, judges identified nine finalists and two alternates in March, who received up to $125,000 in seed funding to build scaled prototypes of their wave energy converter devices. With the support of the U.S. Navy, the finalist teams tested their prototype devices at the nation’s most advanced wave-making facility, the Naval Surface Warfare Center’s Maneuvering and Seakeeping Basin at Carderock, Maryland.
Wave energy is produced by converting the energy from waves into electricity. It has the potential to be a substantial resource to deliver renewable energy to the United States. The wave energy sector is in its early stages of development, and the diversity of technologies makes it difficult to evaluate the most technically and economically viable solutions.
The Wave Energy Prize Competition has addressed this challenge by comparing a wide range of device types and evaluating them against a difficult threshold requirement for high energy capture – double what was previously possible. The Prize has already facilitated rapid technical innovation, and in the next year, the Energy Department will publish data from all the finalist teams’ test results to further accelerate advancement of this sector.
The Water Power Technologies Office Web site offers information on funding opportunities that sponsor the development of innovative technologies that generate renewable, environmentally friendly, and cost-competitive electricity from water resources. Wave energy and broader marine and hydrokinetic energy research, information and resources are also available from EERE.
Visit the Wave Energy Prize Web site to see full results of the competition or for more information, including more specifics about the finalists and winning teams, and photos of the prototype devices.
