Renewable energy project expands

Eco Wave Power (EWP) exclusively told GreenPort that following testing of its combined wave and solar system in its R&D facility at Jaffa Port, it will carry out testing on floaters at Gibraltar Wave Farm. The company began testing the system at Jaffa in September 2019 with the aim of installing solar panels on all floaters in the R&D facility and potentially implementing the technology in other sites.

Inna Braverman, co-founder of Eco Wave Power, said: “The expansion of the Jaffa Port project is still under construction, so for now solar panels have not been installed on all floaters. However, following our testing on the Jaffa Port R&S facility, we have decided to commence larger scale testing on the 8 floaters that we have installed in Gibraltar.”

The EWP engineering team said that combining wave energy and solar power by connecting solar panels to the surface of its floaters enables a higher generation of electricity on the same space. There is no cost associated with land use for solar production.

During sunny days, there will be a mirroring effect which will potentially increase energy production from the solar panels on top of the EWP floaters.

The surrounding water will also have a cooling effect on the panels causing less energy loss resulting from heat, in similarity to solar panels that are currently being installed on water reservoirs.

In January, EWP announced it had finalised the assembly of the hydraulic energy conversion unit for its Jaffa Port project and entered the electrical assembly phase, to be executed by Siemens.

Once complete, the new wave energy facility in Jaffa Port will have an installed capacity of 100kW, while each panel size will be 330 watts, totalling 3.3kW in installed capacity for solar in Jaffa Port, and 2.6kW installed capacity for solar in the Gibraltar project, said Ms Braverman.