With 96.5% of all water on Earth being on the ocean, there is a theoretical ocean wave energy potential of 2000 GW of installed capacity, which could contribute to decarbonizing the energy system, expanding the water supply through desalination and creating a new industry with export opportunities worldwide. However, this opportunity remains underexplored due to remaining technological, market, environmental and social challenges. With wave energy still in the pre-commercial development stages, the EU setting a target of 337 GW of installed wave by 2050 and a direct EU economic impact of drought events in the past 30 years estimated at a minimum of € 100BN, there is a unique opportunity for strong industrial cooperation towards the deployment of solutions to address the twin challenges of energy and fresh water shortage. Leveraging on a strong consortium vision, expertise and technologies, the W2EW project aims to deliver a world beating and first of a kind wave powered technology solution – W2EW solution – to the market. The solution relies on the innovative integration of wave energy and water desalination technologies, to produce zero-emission electricity and fresh water. The main goal of this project is to integrate the partners technologies, demonstrate the combined solution, and build the market to pave the way for broad market roll-out. Thirty-three months after project start the consortium plans to roll out the W2EW solution on off grid small-scale energy and water production in islands and isolated coastal communities with up to 100,000 inhabitants, which corresponds to a potential market of 22Bn EUR for electricity and 6Bn EUR for freshwater. After 2025 we intend to extend the customer base of the W2EW solution to the large-scale utilities for production of renewable energy and/or water desalination, to be an alternative and/or to operate in synergy with offshore wind and solar PV.

No attempt to harvest energy from waves has resulted in an economically viable and competitive technology. Many projects stopped and investors have become sceptical of wave power. Currently the cost per watt of usable wave energy is high, due to a focus on energy conversion methods and efficiency, rather than on mooring and grid connection, accounting for more than 90% expenditure. Wavepiston is a break through near-shore wave power technology producing energy from waves at a competitive price with respect to the most efficient renewable energy technologies. The system consists of identical modules mounted on a string pumping pressurized water to shore for successive energy conversion. Using Wavepiston’s patented “force cancellation” principle the system is able to reduce the amount of forces on the mooring and structure to 1:10, requiring a simpler structure and therefore reducing capital costs. The Wavepiston system can provide cost efficient, clean and reliable renewable energy to help meet Europe’s increasing demand and achieve emissions reduction targets. The offshore application ensures it is a suitable fit also for remote islands and isolated coastal communities. The Wavepiston system was conceived in 2006 and in 2009 the concept of force cancellation was patented. In 2010 numerous tank tests were performed with a system 1:30 the size, that experimentally validated the system and proved each panel can harvest more than 5% of the energy contained in a wave. In 2013 a proof of concept was carried out offshore with a system 1:9 the size and it worked better than predicted. Vryhof Anchors and Nurmi Cylinders, specialised in offshore mooring and hydraulic pumps respectively, have joined the project to support product industrialization. Phase 1 will assess various business models (with the support of the ESCO company EnerMed partner in the project), establish a complete supply chain and plan all activities for the large scale pilot to be held in Ireland.