OPT's PowerBuoy deployed on open sea.

Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) has received a EUR 2.2 million cash grant from the European Commission's Seventh Framework Program (FP7). The amount is part of a larger EUR 4.5 million award for a consortium of companies, including OPT, working on the implementation of a PowerBuoy wave energy device, under a project called WavePort. The project is to installed in Spain, at the Santoña site, where OPT has been working on the project contracted by Iberdrola.

OPT's job is to provide the design, supply and deployment of the PowerBuoy and Underwater Substation Pod. The remaining funding will go to the other companies involved in the project for steel fabrication, wave monitoring equipment, wind resource research, system monitoring and project management. The companies involved are the Wave Energy Center (Portugal), Fugro Oceanor (Norway), DeGima (Spain), University of Exeter (UK) and ISRI (UK).

The PowerBuoy uses proprietary wave energy conversion, allowing for wave-by-wave tuning of the device's performance to achieve optimal electrical output. The work on the project is expected to be happening over the course of the next two months. OPT will be seeking additional funding necessary for the completion of the WavePort project.

[source: OPT]