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Waves to Watts & Water!
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CalWave Power Technologies Inc. (CalWave) provides a solution to harness the renewable power of ocean waves to produce electricity and freshwater. CalWave’s patented Wave Energy Converter (WEC) is moored offshore, simple and scalable. Our initial shallow water approach was inspired by the ability of a muddy seafloor to effectively absorb over passing ocean waves within only a few wavelengths. Our patented solution operates submerged, allowing it to survive stormy seas while causing no visual pollution or posing any collision danger.
In 2017, CalWave was awarded for a multi-million demonstration contract by the US DOE and received support by Thiel Foundation’s Breakout Labs. Through testing in open ocean, CalWave will validate and update estimated costs for a full-scale version of our technology.
In 2019, CalWave received two additional multi-million dollar awards by DOE contract to 1) build a commercial scale drive train in parallel to our open water demo and 2) design the next generation of our submerged pressure differential WEC.CalWave was awarded by the US Wave Energy Prize for meeting the threshold to double the energy captured from ocean waves compared to the state of the art.
An essential piece of the clean energy puzzle
According to the Department of Energy, wave energy has the potential to power over 100 million US homes, but is completely underutilized at the moment. Wave energy has the advantage of higher predictability, nighttime availability, and significantly higher energy density (~30-60 kW/m of coastline). The significantly higher energy density enable lower land requirements and a lower carbon foot print compared to other generation forms.
Initial approach inspired by nature
The ability of muddy seafloors to dampen ocean waves is well documented at various locations around the world. In the Gulf of Mexico, the wave–mud interaction is so strong that the storm waves are damped within 100–200 m! Our initial shallow water design was inspired by this phenomena.
Technological Advantages
CalWave’s design has distinct technological advantages:
Submerged operations enable storm survivability and economical design.
The device poses no visual pollution to the ocean surface and no collision danger to boats and sea life.
High performance and absorption efficiency of ocean waves.
The modular design allows our technology to scale for desired output power capacities.
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CalWave is currently hiring! We are looking for the best and the brightest to help bring our technology to market fast.