US DOE giving up to USD 40m for wave energy test facility

The US Department of Energy (DOE) will make available as much as USD 40 million (EUR 35.5m) in funding for the site selection, design, permitting, and construction of a wave energy testing facility.

In an announcement on Tuesday, the DOE said it anticipates the testing site, to be located within federal or state waters, to have at least three test berths. The tests will bring critical performance data to address technical risks, reduce the costs, and inform future designs to speed up the commercialisation and deployment in the US of wave energy technologies.

The one project that wins funding will build an open-water, grid-connected, fully energetic wave test facility.

The DOE noted that the country’s technically recoverable wave energy resource is estimated at 900 TWh to 1,230 TWh. Marine and hydrokinetic (MHK) technologies, which generate power from waves, tides, or currents, “are at an early but promising stage of development”. Many US coastal areas have strong wave and tidal resources, and the fact that over 50% of the US population lives within 50 miles of the coast makes transmission more economical.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.887)

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