The Neowave wave energy converter: Technical and financial approach

The Neowave WEC is a point absorber with a scalable main body which is made of standard commercial parts. Its manufacturing and assembly processes can be done using traditional manufacturing methods, currently available worldwide even in developing countries, which make it accessible for remote communities with scarce economic resources. The Neowave WEC's dismountable and stackable structure facilitates transportation logistics, which could be a concern for remote locations. Neowave is designed to use recyclable or reusable materials.

Remotely Operated Systems (ROS) for maintenance and control have patent pending processes and they are its technical innovations.

Neowave was initially designed based on fluid mechanics and energy conservation equations. With this approach, the entry conditions of the system and the device's geometry were established to calculate variables such as buoyancy forces, weights, flow rates, and the potential for energy generation. Based on these calculations, a manually operated model and a 1:30 scale functional prototype were manufactured to validate the preliminary design. In addition to the basic principles calculations, a preliminary techno-economic assessment was developed for LCoE estimation and potential reductions.

The device is actually at TRL 3 and is looking for computational simulations, wave basin tests for mechanical and electrical measurements and analysis to increase confidence, previous to open water tests, and thinking at a future commercial stage.