LR Awards First Technology Qualification for Ocean Energy

 

Following more than two years of cooperation, Lloyd’s Register has awarded its first Technology Qualification certificate to a developer of ocean energy technology, AW-Energy in Finland.

 

The Technology Qualification certificate was presented in person by the Chairman of Lloyd’s Register, Thomas Thune Andersen, to the CEO of AW-Energy, John Liljelund, and in the presence of the British Ambassador to Denmark, HE Ms. Vivien Life, at the British Embassy in Copenhagen on Tuesday, July 12.

 

AW-Energy’s Chairman of the Board, Per Langer, said, “I have seen that this has been very challenging, but a valuable process, so I am very excited to announce that WaveRoller has been awarded the Technology Qualification certificate, and the first ocean energy converter to reach this level of validation by Lloyd’s Register.”

 

As a significant untapped resource of clean renewable energy globally, with a potential greater than the capacity of all the installed fossil fuel plants in Europe combined, wave energy represents a predictable energy source, and can make a valuable contribution to the commercial mix of renewable energy, Lloyd’s Register said. Power generation from wave energy will soon be bankable with the qualified WaveRoller technology.

 

“As the British Ambassador to Denmark I am delighted to witness” said the

 

British Ambassador to Denmark, HE Vivien Life, said the signing of the Technology Qualification certificate opens the door for wide scale commercial deployment of Scandinavian wave energy solutions globally. “The WaveRoller technology not only offers a novel and previously untapped source of renewable energy, it has minimal visual impact and it even creates artificial basis for reef ecosystems to flourish,” Life said. “Companies like AW-Energy are the key players in this new era of energy innovation and which increasingly focuses on clean technology solutions for global sustainability challenges. Encouraging cooperation in developing renewable energy solutions between the U.K. and Scandinavia has been a key part of my role here."

 

AW-Energy has been developing WaveRoller technology for over 15 years and the engineering team since early 2014 has cooperated with Lloyd’s Register on the Technology Qualification process for certification.

 

“Technology Qualification is a detailed goal-based approach to risk that has allowed AW-Energy to identify and mitigate risks and weaknesses in the design throughout the innovation process for the prototype deployment in Peniche,” said Christopher Ridgewell, Chief Technology Officer at AW-Energy. “Lloyd’s Register’s team of highly experienced engineers supported the development of our project from the outset and challenged the design to validate key goals in safety, reliability and availability for the unit.”

 

Lloyd’s Register said its Technology Qualification has a major role to play in relatively young and new components, processes or systems with a lack of historical data.

 

Commenting on the process Ross Wigg, VP Renewables at Lloyd’s Register, said, “The technologies that are to be commercialized in ocean energy, in renewables and across the energy mix, can be both emerging technologies and technology that is unproven on a large industrial scale. Our approach supports a better way for technology developers to manage costs and the associated risks of bringing new technology to market.”

 

AW-Energy’s WaveRoller product is a near shore wave energy converter, mounted to the seabed with a panel that oscillates with the wave surge. It paves the way to commercialization for the wave energy industry and with ongoing projects in Portugal, Ireland, France and Chile. AW-Energy expects to see rapid growth in the next few years for its WaveRoller product as governments, operators and geo-energy policy collectively strive for cleaner and more sustainable power generation solutions.