These power-generating buoys might have just made wave energy viable

Ocean waves could be an enormous source of power for the grid: in the U.S., the motion of waves along coastlines could generate as much as 1.4 trillion kilowatt-hours a year, or around a third of the electricity that Americans currently use.

But wave power lags far behind other renewable energy. While solar and wind dominate new power installations worldwide, wave energy remains confined to small pilot projects. This makes sense: It’s more expensive to build. And harsh ocean conditions make equipment vulnerable to damage in storms.

But in Morocco, one startup is pioneering new technology that could make wave energy more viable, with projects now moving forward at a port and a future data center.

“Compared to other wave energy systems, the initial cost is reduced by 70%,” says Oussama Nour, CEO and cofounder of the startup, called ATAREC. To help bring down the cost of installation, the company attaches its tech to existing infrastructure rather than building from scratch.

In its first pilot, at the Port of Tanger Med—a massive port on the northern coast of Morocco—the startup installed one unit of its tech next to the port’s breakwater, a wall built out into the water to shield the harbor from waves. The equipment uses a floating buoy that moves up and down with waves, converting the vertical motion into electricity that can be added to the grid. (Another wave energy startup, Eco Wave Power, also uses existing infrastructure to help lower its costs.)

While solar and wind power are intermittent, wave energy is more predictable and more consistently available. The exact amount varies by location, and changes throughout the day based on conditions like wind and tides. But in its pilot, the company found that its tech produces energy around 62% of the time. Solar power in the region produces energy around 18% of the time, Nour says.

“We need to have a mix of wind, solar, and wave [energy], and also batteries,” Nour says. By helping fill the gaps when wind and solar aren’t available, wave power has the potential to help the grid get closer to fully renewable in areas like the Moroccan coast.

The company’s technology comes in a range of sizes, with the biggest unit capable of generating 750 kilowatts. At the port, if the technology is installed along the full breakwater, there’s room for more than 100 units, which could fully power the port and industrial areas behind it.

A unique design helps make the system more resilient in storms. In bad weather, valves open and let water into the floating buoys so they sink underneath the surface, protecting them from damage. After the storm passes, the buoys rise back up. (For other wave energy tech, storm damage has been a major challenge.) Because the tech is installed next to breakwaters, it’s also easier to access for maintenance than systems that are built farther out in the ocean.

The company, which has raised around $2 million in seed funding so far, is now planning a larger pilot and working on lab tests of its newest system. It’s also part of a Microsoft incubator that will later pilot the technology at a data center on the coast.

Since solar and wind have a much larger head start—and can be used in more locations—wave energy probably won’t end up taking away much market share from them. But it could be useful in certain niches. At a port or a coastal data center that wants to generate as much of its own electricity as possible, for example, solar panels would take up far more space than wave energy tech. Ports could also use the power to produce green hydrogen or ammonia or methanol to fuel ships. And while wave energy can’t provide grid power quite as steadily as geothermal, it also doesn’t involve expensive drilling deep underground, and it’s consistent enough to help make the overall grid more stable.

“I think there’s always going to be a role for different options we can put on the table for different places, for different usage, for different reasons,” says Alexander Dale, the director of global challenges for MIT Solve, a program that leverages MIT resources to help startups like Wave Beat grow. “Helping solutions that are able to fit into different market niches to start—and then as they come down the cost curve, more of those niches become available—is good.”

Right now, the levelized cost of energy for Wave Beat’s tech is around 1.5 times more than wind and as much as three times more than solar. Still, Nour says that the cost can become competitive as the tech scales up. It’s already around three times cheaper to install than other wave energy tech, and about half the cost to run.