Edinburgh University tech powers Scottish wave energy project

Wave energy innovator Mocean Energy has selected technology developed by the University of Edinburgh to help power up its prototype.

Mocean has secured 3.3m from Wave Energy Scotland (WES) to develop and build a scale prototype of its Blue Horizon wave machine. Picture: Contributed

In January, Mocean secured £3.3 million from Wave Energy Scotland (WES) to develop and build a scale prototype of its Blue Horizon wave machine which will be deployed in Orkney next year.

Now the Edinburgh start-up has chosen the university’s C-GEN technology to provide the power take-off system for its utility-scale demonstrator.

C-GEN is a novel direct-drive generator which is said to be highly efficient over a wide range of wave conditions. The university is also currently engaged with WES in a separate project to develop and demonstrate the technology.

The two teams will now build a test rig, which will be tested at a specialist facility in Rosyth.

Mocean Energy managing director Cameron McNatt said: “Our test programme will ensure we optimise the performance of both technologies.”