Israel- based Eco Wave Power, an onshore wave energy developer, has initiated talks with Adani group to install a generation plant at the Vizhinjam port, Kerala, a senior company official said.
“We are in discussion with Adani Vizhinjam Port Private Limited (AVPP) for installing power floaters as they are building a new port which they want to make it renewable energy,” Inna Braverman, founder & CEO of the Nasdaq-listed firm, told FE.
The Vizhinjan port recently received the shipping ministry’s nod as the country’s first transshipment port.
Another official of Eco Wave Power said “we are currently having discussions with AVVP surrounding the potential implementation of a wave energy project, first with the intention to utilise the 980 meters of breakwaters for an initial prototype of the project, and later potentially incorporating the existing 3000 meters of breakwaters in subsequent project phases”.
Each megawatt (MW) of installed capacity in the port site will require 270 linear meters of breakwaters space, the official said.
On the challenges faced by the sector, Braverman said that there is no regulation and legislation for the wave energy as its new kid in the block of renewable energy. “While it takes around six months to build a power station, regulatory approval takes around three years,” she said.
She acknowledged that there are high profile failures of various wave energy companies in Australia, Portugal, Europe in the last many years as they started with offshore projects which faced a lot of difficulties.
“Difficulty was that when waves were too high, the handle systems couldn’t handle them, many units broke down after a few days of operations,” Braverman, who was born in Ukraine during the Chernobyl nuclear disaster 1986, said.
In August, 2023, the Eco Wave power station at the Port of Jaffa, here, was connected to Israel’s national power grid, becoming the first company to supply electricity generated from waves.
The power station at Jaffa has an installed capacity of 100 kilowatt (kw), enough energy to supply power to around 100 homes at peak efficiency and the pilot project according to Braverman was supported by ministry of energy, Israel and EDF Renewables IL, a subsidiary of the French multinational — Électricité de France.
In terms of cost, an investment of $1.5 million is required for building 1 megawatt (MW) wave energy plant, a similar investment compared to wind and solar energy, according to Braverman.
The company founded in 2011 is in the process of receiving final approval for the installation of first-ever US wave energy pilot in collaboration with Shell for setting up a 100-kw power station in AltaSea’s premises in the port of Los Angeles in coming months.
In March, 2024, Eco Wave Power received the last approval for setting up the first commercial-scale wave energy project in the world at the city of Porto, Portugal with a 20 MW facility to supply electricity to 20,000 households.
In 2020, the company entered into a concession agreement with the Port of Leixões, Portugal, to use an area potentially suitable for the construction, operation, and maintenance of a wave energy power station owned and operated by the port authority.
Initially the company raised capital from the venture capitalists and in July 2021, the company was listed in Nasdaq. At present Braverman and David Leb owns 26.5% and 26.7% shares in Eco Wave Power while the rest of the holdings are with Alpha Capital, Pirveli Investments and others.
(The reporter was in Tel Aviv, on the invitation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Israel)