CalWave Power Technologies shares video and responds to prize related questions

Watch the CalWave Power Technologies April update video: 

CalWave responds to questions asked of the competing teams:

Why are you participating in the Prize?

Wave power is the third largest renewable resource after wind and solar with the advantage of higher predictability and power density.
The main goal of the US Wave Energy Prize is double the state of the art economic performance of Wave Power and we want to contribute to that mission in order to secure a sustainable and independent energy supply for the coming generations. Similar to the competition in the US that the Pelton turbine won in 1883 for the most efficient water wheel turbine and that is been in use till today, the US Wave Energy Prize can help to move the entire industry and state of the art forward. It’s the first time in history that multiple wave power technologies are all compared in the same scale and testing conditions by a third party with special focus on economic performance.

What do you think the role of government in driving innovation is?

Similar to the duty of our generation of engineers to developed new solutions, it is the duty of the government to support this effort. Sustainable and independent energy is a critical infrastructure challenge that is driving the entire countries economy. If we look back who were the critical players to help wind and solar power to mature to its current stage, the governments and their incentives played a critical role in adoption and scaling of these technologies.

What have you learned about WECs since participating in the Prize?

The structure of the prize and feedback of the judges was very valuable and we continued to design based on first principles. Our most valuable learning was to be able to design for the entire life cycle of a converter and economics as the main design specification. We learned how strongly design changes effect the entire system life cycle and how interconnected all aspects and parameters are.
What are your plans if you win the Prize?

The prize would allow us to continue to further our technology to support DOE’s mission to help wave electricity generation systems achieve a Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) target of 15 c/kWh by 2030.

What words of advice and encouragement do you have for the remaining teams in the Prize?

We all have the shared larger mission to develop an economically viable solution to secure us a sustainable and independent energy mix in the future allowing high percentage of renewable power generation. In the mist of the competitive nature of the prize and market, we should step back once in a while and remind ourselves about that fact.