Wave energy developer Seabased joins forces with EMEC to prepare for certification

A global wave energy company is coming to Scotland in a bid to reduce costs associated with developing the pioneering technology.

Seabased Group is building wave energy parks around the world and has proved both its wave energy converter technology and wave-to-grid system in multi-generator demonstration parks in Sweden and Ghana.

Now it has signed a deal with the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney to design and implement a testing programme supporting the company's aim of certifying its latest generation wave-to-grid wave energy park technology.

EMEC says that certification will pave the way for quality-controlled manufacture, while a certified process will also enable a reduction in manufacturing costs, logistics and transport, a faster track to local permitting and insurance, and an opportunity for Seabased to generate local jobs and training for future maintenance of its systems.

The collaboration has been part-funded by the Interreg North Sea Region Ocean Energy Scale-up Alliance (OESA) project, which is an accelerator programme for the deployment of large-scale marine energy pilots.

EMEC will review the Seabased technology and advise on options to meet its certification objectives in a timely and cost-effective manner. The resulting certification strategy will ensure that its future test programme is aligned with its certification objectives and that the evidence from past and future testing is compiled in the most effective manner.

Independent third-party certification of the design and technical performance of the Seabased system will ensure that the design meets the highest global standards and will validate the system’s performance.

EMEC described this next step as "a huge move forward" for not only the company but for the developing wave energy sector.

Elaine Buck, EMEC’s technical manager, said: “We are delighted to be working with Seabased. This is a great opportunity to help advance the emerging wave energy sector which has such potential to provide clean, renewable energy to the world.”

Laurent Albert, Seabased Group’s chief executive officer, said: “EMEC is a premier facility and is accredited for marine energy testing. They understand our industry and we trust their expertise.

“Certification is a complex process that marks a new level of maturity in an industry whose time has come to take its place among renewables. This partnership is one important step toward the realisation of that goal.”

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