Scaling Ocean Wave Energy: From Breakthrough Innovation to Grid-Ready Infrastructure

Hélène Thibieroz, We Grow Green Tech

Ocean wave energy represents one of the most abundant and underutilized sources of renewable power on the planet. Unlike many intermittent renewable sources, wave energy offers a uniquely high degree of predictability and continuity, driven by consistent ocean wave dynamics rather than short-term weather variability. As the global energy system accelerates toward deep decarbonization to answer exponential demand, this characteristic positions wave power as a compelling candidate for stable, baseload-compatible renewable generation — capable of complementing wind and solar in building a fully decarbonized and resilient energy mix.

Yet, while the theoretical potential is vast, the transition from innovation to industrial-scale deployment reveals a complex landscape of technical, regulatory, financial, and ecosystem-level challenges. Understanding these constraints is essential not as a limitation of the technology, but as a roadmap for how it can practically scale.

So in an humble attempt to gain a much deeper understanding, I discussed this topic with several experts in this field, Dr Roland Karnbash, owner of HCS Container services and deeply involved with maritime innovation at the port of Hamburg, Pierre Doutreloux, a expert in scaling renewable energy projects now actively developing wave energy at HACE and John Dagleish, a senior technologist and system developer for energy and maritime applications. They all shared their real-life and practical insights on foreseen challenges and possible solutions to overcome these challenges, which could be simplified in three different areas.

Infrastructure & Grid Integration As you scale wave energy, what were the biggest barriers to integrating with existing utility infrastructure ?

Dr. Roland Karnbash : “The maritime shipping industry is and will always be a key industry for the supply of nations and people around the world. The transport of goods by sea and on land will need energy and the reduction of emissions at all stages of the transport will be an essential factor in the overall decarbonization strategies.

Dr. Roland Karnbach, Owner, HCS Hamburger Container Service GmbH

Ports are the central connection points for the different modes of transport. The energy demand in the port infrastructure, at the ocean vessels and for the connected transport routes on rivers, rails and roads make them the best suited points to connect them to the grids for electric “clean” energy.

Ocean wave technology could be a promising approach for a steady and reliable production of green energy. Ocean waves are much more stable than wind or sun and could be a valuable contribution to stabilize the grid and reduce the need for power stores.

The challenge for wave technology will be to connect them to the land-based energy infrastructure. As the name already says, Ocean wave technology will need to be placed offshore in the oceans. Probably it would be a good idea, to combine this technology with the offshore wind parks. Here you already have supply platforms and cable connections to the energy grid on land. Ports also play a big role in the building and supply of the wind parks and there could be a lot of room for synergies when building ocean wave power plants.”

John Dagliesh : As with all new technology there is a certain amount of sceptism on whether the scale up version will be as reliable and as efficient as predicted. With modern simulation techniques more reliable full scaled predictions are possible but the quality and competencies of the engineers undertaken the simulations have to be thoroughly tested as there has been serious flaws found moving from computer simulations test to full size when compared to model tests moving to full scale. This is why building a representative large scale pilot is critical to the overall success of the project.

Pierre Doutreloux: “In France, the main obstacles we have encountered regarding the integration of wave energy into the public grid are mainly regulatory. To obtain authorization to inject kWh into the public grid, you must be registered with the Pluri Annuel de l’Energie program. Currently, HACE is not. We are therefore pivoting to offer our energy directly to the municipalities, which distribute it through the collective self-consumption mechanism. This limits the installed capacities to 10 MW per municipality. Otherwise, from a technical point of view, the reproduction frequency is 60 Hertz, which is totally stable and compatible with the network’s expectations. Outside France, many regulations are less restrictive and we are accepted in so far as all authorizations and permits are obtained.”

From Pilot to Commercial Scale Many ocean tech solutions succeed at pilot stage but struggle to scale — what specific technical, financial, or regulatory hurdles have you faced in moving toward full deployment, and how have you addressed them?

John Dagleish: One aspect that is difficult to quantify is the ongoing OPEX and maintenance programs that requires to be undertaken at an offshore location which can often occur in difficult weather conditions. In the case of HACE the level of pre-invested redundancy ensures that immediate response is not required and the system is designed for module replacements rather than component replacement which ensures all offshore operations are quickly and efficiently carried out. All marine components are operating is a saltwater environment and careful materials selection of all components needs to be undertaken to ensure long operating life and ensure material compatibility across the ENTIRE system not just at the component level — several notable failures in the North Sea Subsea Systems occurred due to mixing of different grades of stainless steel which caused early failures.

Pierre Doutreloux, HACE Business Development

Pierre Doutreloux: HACE financed and tested 2 demonstrators, the first in 2018 and the second in 2023. This allowed us to adjust and optimize the electrical generation and to validate the resistance of the modules in the marine environment. After this stage, it was mainly the financial aspect that strongly hindered the subsequent development. We met with many interested organizations and companies. The main obstacle reported to us was the gap project financing/maturity scale. We are currently working on bridging this gap.

Ecosystem & Partnerships Scaling wave energy requires collaboration across utilities, governments, and investors — what kind of partnerships or policy changes have helped accelerating adoption, and which evolution do you see?

John Dagleish, Renewable Infrastructure and Energy systems Expert

John Dagleish: The potential energy resource in Wave Energy is extremely large and therefore in order to expand it and integrated into the national grid systems will require that the technology be developed very closely with the power operators and cannot be developed in isolation other than for a direct supply to an individual entity.

Pierre Doutreloux: In our case, the ramp up of HACE will be achieved through the acceptance by governments of this inexhaustible source of energy that is the waves. Many governments are very interested, especially in the current geopolitical context and its consequences on the inexorable rise in prices of oil and its derivatives. The integration of WEC into government energy programs will facilitate the entry of non-fossil energy infrastructure investors and funding organizations. The same goes for electricity networks, which will have to increase their distribution capacities and undergo significant expansion in order to absorb the electricity produced and distribute it to everyone. We have seen an accelerated demand in the last few months.