In September 2022, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) issued a $10.3 million funding opportunity to accelerate the development and testing of marine energy technologies with a focus on wave and ocean current resources. This represented the first significant funding opportunity announcement by the U.S. Department of Energy focused on a blue economy market and was designed to encourage faster and smaller-scale designing, building, and testing of marine energy technologies.

The funding opportunity supported wave-powered systems innovation for seawater desalination, research and development for blue economy markets, and a feasibility assessment for an ocean current test facility. This opportunity built on the success of WPTO’s Waves to Water Prize, which helped accelerate the development of small, modular, wave-powered desalination systems capable of providing clean water in disaster and recovery scenarios, as well as in water-scarce coastal and island locations.