The company is developing a wave power device called Searaser, created by Devon engineer Alvin Smith.
Inventor Alvin Smith said the main barrier to making wave-power efficient and therefore cost-effective was resilience against the hostile ocean environment.
“Most existing wave technologies seek to generate electricity in the sea itself. But Searaser doesn’t generate the electricity out at sea. It simply uses the motion of the ocean swell to pump seawater through an onshore generator.”
Searaser pumps seawater using a vertical piston between two buoys – one on the surface of the water, the other suspended underwater and tethered to a weight on the seabed. As the ocean swell moves the buoys up-and-down the piston works like a bicycle pump to send volumes of pressurised seawater through a pipe to an onshore turbine to produce electricity.
The plan comes as the government and the Crown Estate, which owns the seabed surrounding the UK – has reduced the burden of financial guarantees it requires from wave and tidal developers to obtain a lease option from £25 million to £5 million.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change is expected to increase support for wave power from 2 (Renewables Obligation Certificates) per MWh to 5 ROCs per MWh.
Ecotricity aims to have a commercial scale Searaser in the sea within 12 months and 200 Searasers around the British coastline within five years.