CalWave’s xWave uses a promising architecture. ![]() Today, the technology is at an inflection point. “From powering autonomous vehicles for ocean exploration to transforming salt water into fresh for remote island communities or disaster recovery situations, marine energy devices have a vast range of potential applications.” Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO), which provided funding to CalWave to design, build, and test its proprietary technology. “Marine energy systems, like CalWave’s xWave, are exciting not just because they can provide clean, carbon-free energy to coastal communities,” said Yana Shininger, a technical project officer for the U.S. coastlines: Offshore, portable wave energy devices could help power the growing blue economy, including sensor-equipped sea drones that collect data on ocean ecosystems for marine research. On its own, wave energy could satisfy up to 34% of the United States’ electricity needs. Combined, the three renewable resources could provide the grid with reliable power both day and night and year-round. When the sun sets and winds slow, waves keep moving at a steady pace through all four seasons. Wave energy is also a good complement to other renewable energy resources. “Wave power is regarded as the largest unused renewable resource and the third-largest technical feasible resource,” said Lehmann, who co-founded California-based CalWave in 2014. The launch edges the technology closer to providing grid-connected electricity for coastal communities worldwide. In September 2021, one of those designs-CalWave’s xWave-got a step closer with the company’s (and California’s) first at-sea, long-duration wave energy pilot project. Several architectural designs are currently vying for commercial success. But the marine energy industry-which develops technology that creates electricity from ocean waves, currents, and tides-is in an earlier stage of development. Through decades of development, the solar power and wind energy industries have homed in on the most cost-effective and efficient designs to transform these energy sources into electricity. Today, as the CEO of CalWave Power Technologies, Inc., Lehmann and his team build machines to capture a different, newer renewable energy source: the energy of ocean waves. After hearing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change urgently call for more renewable energy, the young engineer decided to dedicate his career to thwarting climate change with new renewable energy solutions. The system features anti-corrosion coating and anti-biofouling coating, with a third-party assessment verifying it is not dangerous to marine life.In high school, Marcus Lehmann built a solar-powered race car. xWave says the device will be cheaper than the competition and will work efficiently for years underwater. This is key to the longevity of the device, the company explains, as is a spool system that allows the xWave to be reigned in during bad weather. ![]() The xWave is run underwater to protect it from catastrophic damage caused by rough seas. In a video the company posted last year, COO Dan Petcovic said, "as a wave passes over the top, you get a pressure wave that causes motion relative to the sea floor, and with our anchors on the sea floor, we convert that relative motion to power." Will wave energy take off? CalWave tested a 1/20th-scale model in a test basin in 2016, but now it has successfully put a full-sized model to the test.ĬalWave has yet to reveal much in the way of specifications for how its system works. The company's xWave is a buoyant platform that's anchored to the sea floor using a tether to hold it under the water's surface. The hard part is harnessing that energy in an efficient manner, though CalWave believes it has the solution. Still, as CalWave points out on its website, "ocean waves are 20-60 times more energy-dense, predictable and consistent compared to other forms of renewable energy." Though there are many wave energy companies, it's still yet to take off at a massive scale. ![]() The wave energy technology industry is really still in its early development phase. Before it can do so, more trials are needed, and it will also have to reveal more in the way of specifications about its submerged system. CalWave believes it can harness the waves to become the first company to deploy wave energy systems at a mass scale.
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