Ocean Harvesting to raise 3 MEUR for sea trials with InfinityWEC wave energy converter
To finance sea trials with wave energy converter InfinityWEC at scale 1:3, Ocean Harvesting is raising 3 MEUR in equity investment at a pre-money valuation of 7 MEUR. This investment will be combined with public financing for the project. The sea trials are planned to be completed by the end of 2024, after which commercialization of the technology will be initiated with sea trials of full-scale systems.
A transition to 100% renewable energy is necessary to mitigate climate change. Solar and wind energy are driving the transition but will not be sufficient given the enormity of the task and geographical, space and other constraints. Much more renewable energy will be needed. Wave energy is a vast, unexploited resource for renewable electricity generation. It can furthermore add substantial value by reducing variations in electrical grids with a high degree of renewables, and thereby reduce the amount of energy storage needed to balance electricity supply and demand.
InfinityWEC can unlock the potential of wave power through its advanced power take-off and control system, which tunes to every individual wave to produce electricity efficiently in all sea states. Furthermore, a unique end-stop function ensures both survival and continuous, reliable power production even in the harshest wave conditions. The novel buoy design is made with high strength concrete, with weight similar to a conventional steel hull, but at a quarter of the cost, a third of the CO2 footprint, and one tenth of the manufacturing time. In all, the exceptional performance and reliability, using proven subsystems and a modular design, make InfinityWEC a highly competitive solution for the future global energy market.
Ocean Harvesting is preparing for sea trials of InfinityWEC at scale 1:3 to be performed off the west coast of Sweden. The sea trials will validate the performance in real sea environment and the results will be used to further develop and improve the full-scale system with regards to energy yield, system efficiency, availability, and ultimately affordability.
Ocean Harvesting follows the staged validation framework for ocean energy technologies set out by Ocean Energy Systems (IEA). InfinityWEC has with simulations and physical tests in a test rig in scale 1:10 and in a wave tank been successfully verified with regards to critical functionality of the power take-off and control system, sea-keeping and survival functions in extreme conditions, and the power production performance. The technology is on track towards a competitive cost of energy at 100 EUR / MWh already at 100 MW installed capacity, and < 35 EUR / MWh at large scale deployment, with the added value of reducing the need for energy storage to balance supply and demand of electricity. The market for InfinityWEC ranges from utility-scale wave farms to off-grid applications such as oil & gas platforms, island communities, green hydrogen production and aquaculture.
