Wave Energy Scotland (WES) has announced the list of successful contract awards following its first international competitive open call focused on innovative power take-off systems for wave energy converters.
Over £ 7 mln has been awarded to 16 technology developers and consortia, from countries including UK, USA, Italy and Sweden, all looking for investment to advance their technology towards commercialization, HIE’s press release reads.
Contracted amounts range from £78.000 for concept optimisation, up to £2 mln for later stage prototype development.
Fergus Ewing , Scottish Minister for Energy, said: “The Scottish Government is committed to supporting this important sector and we are confident that Scotland will continue to hold its world class status as a thriving country for wave energy technology development.”
The open call received 42 full proposals which met the specific ‘gate entry’ criteria in order to be assessed. Each successful project has been awarded up to 100% financial support for their technology development projects, according to HIE.
Tim Hurst , Managing Director at Wave Energy Scotland, said: “WES’ ambition is to accelerate the wave industry in Scotland and maintain our leading global position. The interest we received was truly international and as the finalists show, the call has driven a significant level of collaboration between a wide range of interested parties. We can now get started on delivering material outcomes for the sector through these projects and we are looking forward to supporting them all going forward.”
WES is focused on the development of low cost, efficient and reliable components and subsystems that can be shared by wave energy technology developers.
WES is a subsidiary of Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE). It is fully funded by the Scottish Government, which has allocated £14.3 mln to WES for the period to the end of March 2016.
The full list of the contract awards is available here .
Image: EMEC/Illustration