Carnegie advances 6MW wave energy project in Basque Country

Australian marine energy developer Carnegie Clean Energy is set to commence development of a 6MW wave energy array in the Basque Country.

The company announced that a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed with the Biscay Marine Energy Platform (BiMEP) as the potential site of the array project.

This project will see the connection of six of Carnegie's 1MW commercial scale CETO units to the grid via BiMEP’s existing offshore cable and grid connection.

CETO, named after the Greek sea goddess, is a fully submerged, point absorber type wave energy technology. A submerged buoy sits a few metres below the surface of the ocean and moves with the ocean’s waves. This orbital motion drives a power take-off system that converts this motion into electricity.

Carnegie will now commence early project development activities, including exploring the array design, grid connection options, funding mechanisms and required partnerships.

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Yago Torre-Enciso, BiMEP's technical director, commented on the MoU: “Our strategic aim is to provide suitable test facilities that help accelerate the path to commercial marine energy. Therefore, with 20MW worth of capacity available across the BiMEP berths, we welcome the opportunity to work with Carnegie to expand from a single CETO unit to an array deployment.

"While BiMEP has hosted single wave devices in the past, our berths have the ability to support the small arrays which are an important part of the marine energy industry’s growth. We look forward to working with Carnegie towards their 6MW Array in the Basque Country,” concludes Torre-Enciso.

BiMEP provides infrastructure for testing prototypes of ocean energy collectors and auxiliary equipment on the open sea. It is located off the coast at Armintza and has been operating since 2015.

Carnegie has another contract already in place with BiMEP, testing a pilot unit as part of the ACHIEVE Programme. This has allowed them to gain a good understanding of the test site and facilities, knowledge that can be leveraged in this next phase of commercial development.

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Carnegie CEO Jonathan Fiévez added: "Working alongside BiMEP, the Basque Energy Cluster and our local partners and supply chain through the ACHIEVE Programme has shown us that the Basque Country shares our passion for ocean energy solutions. This makes the Basque Country a great location for this next phase of CETO’s commercialisation journey. Building upon the strong groundwork already laid, the agreement with BiMEP provides a clear pathway for us to explore the development of a multi-megawatt CETO array.

"It is a significant stride towards proving CETO's commercial viability at scale, aligning with our dedication to delivering clean, reliable wave energy solutions to markets worldwide, particularly in resource-rich regions like the Basque Country."

The signing of this MoU signals Carnegie's intentions to grow its presence in the Basque Country, which the firm says has a solid local supply chain and supportive government partners.