Carnegie Clean Energy, through its wholly owned subsidiary CETO Wave Energy Ireland (CWEI), has applied to the tender for the third phase of EuropeWave project, requesting approximately €3.75 million to deliver a CETO wave energy prototype at a European test site.
The EuropeWave PCP Program is an innovative and competitive stage-gate program designed to advance promising wave energy converter systems and targeted to prove technical and commercial viability for large scale deployment for future national/regional development programs and/or private investment.
CWEI recently submitted Phase 2 deliverables under its contract covering front-end engineering design (FEED), testing, certification and commercialization activities undertaken during Phase 2 of the project.
This included deliverables from the tank testing campaign in which Carnegie’s reinforcement learning controller was successfully demonstrated in collaboration with Hewlett Packard Enterprise, a first for the wave energy industry.
Following EuropeWave PCP Program deliverable review, CWEI received payments of over €500,000 from EuropeWave for these activities.
Following progression through Phase 1 and 2 of the EuropeWave PCP Program, which have advanced the CETO prototype design through a staged and independently reviewed development process, CWEI has recently also submitted its tender for consideration for a EuropeWave Phase 3 contract.
The EuropeWave Buyers Group will select up to three of the five Phase 2 EuropeWave contractors to receive Phase 3 contracts to deploy their wave energy prototype at the open-water facilities of the Biscay Marine Energy Platform (BiMEP) in the Basque Country or the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Scotland.
Carnegie’s CEO, Jonathan Fiévez , said: “The ACHIEVE project team worked diligently and collaboratively with our EuropeWave partners to deliver a significant body of design and testing work under the EuropeWave Phase 2 program. We were particularly excited to see the success of the reinforcement learning controller in the wave tank testing campaign, a world first and an outcome enabled through our close collaboration with Hewlett Packard Enterprise over recent years.
“The work delivered by the team in Phase 2 demonstrates that CETO can become a valuable and reliable part of renewable energy portfolios in Europe and beyond.
“The Phase 3 tender submitted outlines our plans to use the CETO advancements achieved in Phases 1 and 2 to deliver a CETO prototype at the BiMEP or EMEC test site to further validate the commercial potential of the technology. The Phase 3 CETO prototype will undergo final design and testing activities before being fabricated in Europe and then operated at the test site for at least a year.
“This achievement is expected to be a critical turning point for the CETO technology and would help unlock exciting CETO project opportunities with strategic partners.”
EuropeWave is expected to announce Phase 3 awards in August 2023 with the Phase 3 program activities starting in September 2023 and running through to May 2026.