Australian wave energy company Wave Swell Energy (WSE) has launched a capital raising round of Au$2.5 million (€1.6 million) to fund a technology enhancement program under its Bluefire project.
The private placement of ordinary WSE shares is open for subscription until 31 December 2021, WSE informed.
The proceeds will permit WSE to undertake Bluefire projec t, a comprehensive technology enhancement program that will consolidate on the success and learnings from the UniWave200 project to commercialise the technology.
Key aims of this project will be a reduction in capital expenditures (CAPEX), an improvement in performance efficiency, and maximising of the reliability of the technology, according to WSE.
The technology enhancement programme will be guided by the recommendations contained in the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and Australian Maritime College (AMC) reports, and aimed at utilising the data and information gained from its King Island project to develop the first commercial version of the technology.
This commercial version will also address the climate change mitigation and adaptation issues, allowing the technology to take its place as part of the global renewable energy mix, WSE noted.
“The recent COP26 conference has highlighted not only the requirement for the world to transition to renewable energy in order to mitigate CO2 emissions, but also the necessity to adapt to the inevitable effects of climate change.
“Sea level rise and increasingly severe storm surge events will create existential threats to low-lying nations, requiring resilience measures for them to survive.
“WSE technology provides a solution to both in a single technology – a climate change mitigation measure (a new renewable energy source to reduce CO2 emissions) and a climate change adaptation/resilience measure (wave energy converters doubling as a form of coastal protection)”, WSE said.
A recent independent assessment of the WSE technology by Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, indicated the WSE technology is immediately competitive with diesel-fired generation, and is predicted to reach cost parity with offshore wind by the time 25-45MW of cumulative global capacity is installed.
The report also predicted the WSE technology can reach cost parity with the lowest cost wind and solar PV projects by the time a cumulative 2,500 MW of the technology is installed globally, according to WSE.
This 2,500MW of capacity is just one-third of 1% of what wind and solar PV have each required to reach their current costs of generation, WSE said.
The commercial potential of the technology has been further confirmed by an independent analysis of the King Island project data by AMC.
According to WSE, AMC found the UniWave200 is operating and exporting power consistently and efficiently across a broad range of sea states.
To remind, the 200kW wave energy unit was installed early in 2021 . It fed first electrical energ y into the Hydro Tasmania grid on June 18 2021.