The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) said on behalf of the Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO), it plans to award $25 million to fund eight research and development (R&D) projects on wave-generated electricity. 

Pacwave Plan

The R&D projects are expected to improve wave energy converters (WEC) and other wave energy technologies. The goal is to deploy the projects at scale, as part of the Biden administration’s ambition to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. 

As wind blows over the surface of the open ocean, it creates waves. The kinetic energy of the waves then can be captured by WECs, converting the energy to carbon-free electricity that could be moved to shore via buried cables.

According to the DOE, waves represent a vast amount of untapped energy that could meet up to 30%...