Wave Energy Scotland is looking to invest around £320,000 in four short projects that will help shape its future research and development programs.
The first two contracts will involve evaluating the innovation landscape to find the optimum choices for electrical connection solutions, and foundations and moorings.
Usually these systems in a wave energy device can amount to as much as a quarter of the capital costs so reducing these costs is of paramount importance, Wave Energy Scotland said.
The remaining two contracts will involve ‘horizon scanning’ to understand opportunities in very large scale wave energy converters and alternative generation techniques.
The appointed project teams will likely be looking to other sectors and to the specific characteristics of wave energy generation to find the best opportunities for innovation and cost reduction, Wave Energy Scotland noted.
Wave Energy Scotland was set up in 2014 as a subsidiary of Highlands and Islands Enterprise and is fully funded by the Scottish government.
The organization takes a progressive and collaborative approach to tackling the issues which have proved challenging in the wave energy sector and is driving the development of wave energy technology in Scotland and beyond.