By Kari Williamson

Ocean Energy has been testing a quarter scale prototype of its OE Buoy in Galway Bay for three years.

Wave Hub will fund Ocean Energy’s deployment costs up to £1m (€1.2m), which includes the cost of securing a marine licence and installation of moorings and deployment for the wave power device.

John McCarthy, CEO and Co-Founder of Ocean Energy, says: “This is a major achievement for Irish technology, which has been developed with the assistance of Irish government funding and expertise at the UCC Hydraulics and Maritime Research Centre. It is also an endorsement of the technology development path adopted by Ocean Energy.

Wave Hub General Manager Claire Gibson adds: “I am pleased to confirm our partnership with Ocean Energy Limited and look forward to assisting them with their deployment at Wave Hub later this year. Ocean Energy has completed three years of prototype testing in energetic sea conditions and is ready to make the next step to Wave Hub with a full-scale device. If the testing goes well we expect to see Ocean Energy deploy an array of devices at Wave Hub.”

Two of Wave Hub’s four berths have now been reserved. US and UK-based Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) has already signed a commitment agreement to deploy its PowerBuoy device at the second berth.