Our power demand is rising for the first time in 20 years, and America’s coastlines hold hundreds of gigawatts of untapped power close to our load centers. Existing generation sources won’t be able to keep up, so it is a critical time for wave power in America.
To unlock this sleeping giant, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) supported Oregon State University (OSU) to build a first-of-a-kind utility-scale offshore wave energy test site called PacWave, rated at 20 megawatts and connected to the grid near Waldport, Oregon.
OSU is one of three core members of the Pacific Marine Energy Center (PMEC), alongside the University of Washington and the University of Alaska-Fairbanks.
Founded in 2008, PMEC is “an umbrella organization that unifies testing, research & development, and educational programs in marine energy across Oregon State University, the University of Washington, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks.” CalWave joined PMEC’s Industry Partner Network (IPN) in 2019, and CalWave’s CEO Marcus Lehmann was appointed to join the PMEC Advisory Board this year.
Our team has been collaborating with all three PMEC members for years:
- Oregon State University: CalWave has been scaling our design to a commercial scale version for deployment at PacWave and in 2022 was awarded a build-and-operate award by the DOE WPTO.
- University of Washington: CalWave has worked with the UW Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) on Joint Industry Projects, including the miniWEC platform to test the impact of heave plate geometries on WEC performance.
- University of Alaska-Fairbanks: CalWave has worked with UAF researchers since joining the full-time Launch Alaska portfolio after completing the competitive Tech Deployment Track from 2021-22. We are progressing towards several wave parks in the state as we continue our work with UAF, utilities, municipalities, tribal entities, and permitting agencies.
Lehmann presented CalWave’s progress toward a grid-connected deployment at PacWave during the Ocean Renewable Energy Conference (OREC) in Corvallis, Oregon in August 2025. He also had the honor of joining the OSU and PMEC delegation in Portland for a roundtable with U.S. Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici (OR-1) to discuss the importance of scaling wave energy not only for her district, but for energy security across the country.
As power demand surges across the country due to data centers and electrification, we will need as many sources of consistent and reliable power as possible. CalWave’s solutions are close to providing that power, and we are gracious for our partners at PMEC as we approach the deployment of utility-scale xWave systems at PacWave.
