WES announces Round 2 Direct Generation competition selections

In the second round of the Direct Generation Concept Design Competition, Wave Energy Scotland (WES) has awarded a total of £400,000 to be shared between two projects. 

WES has been exploring the potential benefits and opportunities of direct generation (DG) technologies when applied to wave energy. Direct generation seeks to harness movement (stretching, twisting, bending) of a material into electrical energy without the more traditional conversion using electrical generators. These materials are more commonly used as actuators, sensors and small-scale energy harvesting applications.  

Round 1 of the Direct Generation Concept Competition saw five teams develop wave energy converter concept designs enabling them to analyse benefits, identify R&D requirements and build a solid understanding of the challenges associated with applying flexible, distributed, direct energy conversion solutions to wave energy.  

Round 2 will continue to build upon this concept design activity and begin to deliver the enabling R&D activities in response to the challenges identified in Round 1. 

The two selected projects, led by 4c Engineering and TTI Marine Renewables, will apply the expertise of their teams to the challenges of elastomer fatigue, flexible electrodes, cell-based generator design and materials selection pushing our understanding towards readiness for direct generation wave energy converter (WEC) development. 

Over the 9-month duration, each team will build collaborations and seek wider funding, supporting WES to grow a cross-sector community on Direct Generation technologies. These projects align with other WES activities in this area such as the Supergen ORE Impact Hub Flexfund programme.  

More information on these activities can be found here: 

• https://supergen-ore.net/projects/design-and-development-of-a-new-generation-of-dielectric-elastomer-generators-for-wave-applications 

• https://supergen-ore.net/projects/an-origami-adapted-wave-energy-converter-through-direct-energy-generation 

Jonathan Hodges, Innovation and Strategy Manager said:  

“Round 1 of the Direct Generation Concept Design Competition delivered a valuable strategic step in the investigation of this promising technology area.  Round 2, and the collaborations it will create, will start to answer the key questions through targeted R&D projects, building our confidence and readiness for further technology development in direct generation wave energy solutions.”