Wave Energy Scotland (WES) is a technology development body 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 manages several projects resulting from its pre-commercial procurement funding calls.

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.[1]

Organisation objectives

The original objectives for WES were set out by the Scottish Government as:[2]

  • 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

Project calls

To date, WES has held four funding calls.[3]

Call Title Launch Date Call Closed Budget Notice
Secondary energy conversion technologies (power take-off systems, PTO) 19 March 2015 22 May 2015 £7m MAR203890
Novel wave energy converters 10 June 2015 13 August 2015 up to £2.4m JUN211095
Structural materials and manufacturing processes 18 July 2016 15 July 2016 8 September 2016 up to £3m JUL250786
Control systems 5 April 2017 12 June 2017 £660k

Power Take-off

A total of 42 applications were made for this £7m call, with contracts awarded to nine consortia.[4][5]

Project name Lead organisation Other partners Contract value
Advanced Hydraulic-electric Power Take Off (AHPTO) Nova Innovation Ltd Aquamarine Power, Siemens £89,929
Direct contact dielectric elastomer PTO for submerged wave energy converters Scuola Superiore di Studi Uniersitari e di Perfezionamento Sant'Anna (SSSA) University of Edinburgh, Universita di Bologna £96,000
Edinburgh Designs Adaptive Power Take Off (EDAPTO) Edinburgh Designs None £78,090
New Electric Automotive Power Extraction Device (NEAPED) Marine Design International (MDI) 4c Design £79,400
Power Electronic Controlled Magnet Gear (PECMAG) Ecosse Subsea Systems Bathwick Electrical Design Ltd, Pure Marine Ltd, Supply Design Ltd. £100,000
Power Sharing Transmission based Bi-directional to Uni-directional PTO (PST-PTO) Cofely Fabricom Ghent University £99,990
Survivable and Efficient OLeo-hydraulic assisted power TAke-off (SEÒLTA) TECNALIA Research & Innovation OCEANTEC Energías Marinas S.L. £87,271
Wave Energy Transmission Module Romax Technology Ltd Sea Power Ltd, Limerick Wave & Pure Marine Gen £100,000
'WEC-Direct' - The application of a direct drive, contra-rotating generator to wave energy converters Energy Systems Research Unit, University of Strathclyde Nautricity Ltd £99,128

Novel Wave Energy Converter Call (stage 1)

Eight projects were funded for the first stage of the Novel Wave Energy Converter call, out of 37 applications.[6]

Project Name Lead Organisation Other Partners Contract Value
Attenuator Cost of Energy Reduction (ACER) 4C Engineering Sea Power Ltd £300,000
WaveTrain Sloped Pneumatic WEC Joules Energy Efficiency Services Ltd None £291,039
WaveNET Series 12 Albatern Ltd None £259,867
Mocean Wave Energy Converter Mocean Energy Ltd The University of Edinburgh £299,491
CCell Mark 3 – Novel Curved WEC Optimisation Zyba Limited The University of Bath £252,024.88
AISV - Automatically Inflatable and Stowable Volume for step reduction in WEC cost of energy Quoceant Ltd None £300,000
Anaconda Novel Wave Energy Converter Checkmate Seaenergy Ltd None £271,012
Advanced Archimedes Waveswing AWS Ocean Energy Ltd None £284,853

Structural Materials and Manufacturing Processes Call (stage 1)

Ten projects were funded from this third Innovation Call

Project Name Lead Organisation Other Partners Contract Value
Hydrocomp CorPower Ocean Balmoral Offshore Engineering, Wave Venture £248,600
Reinforced polymers for Wave EneRgy Cruz Acheson Consulting Engineers Lda Carnegie Wave Energy, CorPower Ocean, Arup Consulting Engineers, DNV-GL, National Composites Centre £249,614
Advanced Rotational Moulding for Ocean Renewables (ARMOR) Haydale Composite Solutions Ltd Crompton Moulding Ltd., Wave Venture, Carbon Trust £249,762
Concrete as a Technology Enabler (CREATE) Ove Arup & Partners Cruz Atcheson Consulting Engineers, MPA: The Concrete Centre, MPA British precast, SeaPower Ltd., Wello OY £250,000
Advanced Rotational Moulding for Wave Energy Technologies (ARMWET) Polygen Ltd. Wave Venture, Rototek Ltd. £209,000
Advanced Concrete Engineering - WEC (ACE-WEC) Quoceant Ltd. University of Dundee, Black and Veatch, Innosea, David Kerr £245,231
Polyshell Technology from Ideas ltd. DuPont, Cruz Atcheson Consulting Engineers, Radius Systems £244,500
Netbuoy Tension Technology International Ltd. Black and Veatch Ltd., Optimus ( Abderdeen) Ltd., Quoceant Ltd. £245,300
ELASTO ( A feasibility Study on Elastomeric-based WECs. University of Edinburgh University of Plymouth, Griffon Hoverwork £244,714
Rotational Moulding of Polymers, Composites and Hybrid WEC Structures University of Edinburgh Queens University Belfast, Pelagic Innovation, CETO UK, Eire Composites, Kingspan Environmental £250,000

Control Systems

Thirteen concepts were funded from this fourth Innovation Call.

Project Name Other Partners Contract Value
SURF-MATIC Wave Venture, Mocean Energy Ltd., Altran Ltd., CorPower Ocean AB £48,860
Predictability Bounded Control of the Mocean WEC Mocean Energy Ltd., University of Bath £34,434
WEETICS University of Edinburgh, Oceantec Energias Marinas SL, Tecnalia Research and Innovation £45,000
Adaptive Control of the WaveSub WEC using a Romax electromechanical PTO Marine Power Systems Ltd., University of Bath, Romax Technology Ltd. £41,850
DataWave Mocean Energy Ltd., Wave Venture, CorPower Ocean AB, Polygen Ltd., MarynSol Ltd £46,200
WEQUAD FRAME Project INNOSEA Ltd., EPF Elettrotecnica Srl £41690
Cost of Energy Optimised by Reinforcement Learning (CEORL) Maxsim Ltd., Caelulum Ltd., Aquaharmonics Inc, Wave Conundrums Consulting, David Forehand, David Pizer, Mocean Energy Ltd, CorPower Ocean AB £46,926
Control of WECs based on dielectric elastomer generators University of Edinburgh, Cheros Srl, University of Bologna, University of Trento £47,000
Non-linear Optimal Control: Concepts, Practicalities and Benefits Mocean Energy ltd., Pelagic Innovation Ltd., Industrial Systems and Control Ltd. £47,000
Adaptive hierarchical model predictive control of wave energy converters Mocean Energy Ltd, Queen Mary University of London £28,209
Forewave Innosea Ltd., Politecnico di Torino, Wave for Energy Srl, Industrial Systems and control Ltd. £37,600
IMPACT Integrated Marine Point Absorber Control Tool SgurrControl Ltd., Cruz Atcheson Consulting Engineers £47,000
Wave Energy Advanced Control System (WEACS) CPower Alba Ltd., SgurrControl Ltd., Wave Venture. £46,900

Stage gate selections

Intellectual property

WES has acquired intellectual property developed by the now defunct 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.[7]

Annual conference

The first Wave Energy Scotland annual conference was held on 2 December 2016 at Pollock Halls in Edinburgh"Wave Energy Scotland's first Annual Conference". Retrieved 2 December 2016. 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.[8]

The third annual conference was held on 6 December 2018 at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.[9]

See also

References

  1. "Over £14 million for Wave Energy Scotland". The Scottish Government. 25 February 2015. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
  2. "Wave Energy Scotland Fact Sheet" (PDF). The Scottish Government. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
  3. "Project calls". Wave Energy Scotland. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
  4. "WES announces PTO call contract awards". Tidal Energy Today. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
  5. "International search for innovative power take-off systems for wave energy results in £7m award to technology innovators | hie.co.uk". www.hie.co.uk. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
  6. "Search for novel wave energy converters results in £2.25m award to technology innovators | hie.co.uk". www.hie.co.uk. Retrieved 29 December 2016.
  7. "WES purchases Aquamarine Power IP". Wave Energy Scotland. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
  8. "WES Annual Conference - 27/11/2017". www.waveenergyscotland.co.uk. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
  9. "Third Annual Conference". www.waveenergyscotland.co.uk. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
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