Wave energy technology company Wavepiston has secured an investment of €900,000. The new funding will be directed towards further technological enhancements, system validation in real-world environments, and the establishment of strategic partnerships to facilitate market entry.
Founded in 2014, Wavepiston’s technology is designed to provide renewable power both for onshore use and for desalination to address water shortages. Its technology uses multiple energy collectors coupled on a string, with each string corresponding to a wave energy converter (WEC). Each energy collector has a sail, which is moved back and forth by the passing waves. This movement drives hydraulic pumps generating pressurized seawater, which is piped to the conversion station (onshore or offshore) where the pressurized seawater is used to generate electricity via a standard hydropower turbine and/or desalinated water through a standard reverse osmosis system.
Funds were provided by Dutch joint venture company, The Blue Line B.V., an initiative from two Dutch investors: Connect the Drops, which focuses on the water sector and Unknown Group, a venture capital fund that focuses on investments in the energy transition among other investments.
“Innovation and sustainability go hand in hand,” said Jan Otto Ooms, founder of Connect the Drops. “By harnessing wave energy to produce clean drinking water, we take a significant step toward a future where renewable energy and water security come together.”
