- Carnegie Clean Energy signed an MoU with BiMEP to develop a 6 MW wave energy array in Spain’s Basque Country using six grid-connected CETO units.
- The company began design and grid connection studies and plans to deploy a prototype in 2025 to validate its wave energy technology for global markets.
Australia’s Carnegie Clean Energy has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Spain’s Biscay Marine Energy Platform (BiMEP) to develop a 6 megawatt (MW) wave energy array off the Basque Country coast, the company said on Monday, July 28.
The project will feature six 1 MW CETO units connected to the grid through BiMEP’s existing offshore infrastructure. It follows the planned deployment of Carnegie’s ACHIEVE CETO prototype at the same site in 2025.
In addition, Carnegie said it has begun designing the array, conducting grid connection studies, and developing partnerships. The five-year MOU allows both parties to share development responsibilities while covering their costs unless otherwise agreed upon.
“This agreement gives us a clear path to explore multi-megawatt CETO deployment in the Basque Country,” Carnegie CEO Jonathan Fiévez said in a statement. “It is a key step toward proving CETO’s commercial viability at scale.”
Meanwhile, the Basque Country’s ocean energy ecosystem and Carnegie’s ongoing involvement through the ACHIEVE programme have laid the groundwork for this next phase, Fiévez added.
Furthermore, BiMEP, which has 20 MW of grid-connected capacity, said the partnership supports its goal of accelerating commercial marine energy. “We welcome the opportunity to expand from a single CETO unit to an array,” said Yago Torre-Enciso, BiMEP’s Technical Director.
Carnegie also plans to operate the ACHIEVE unit for two years starting in 2025 to collect performance data and advance the technology’s commercialisation.
CETO is a submerged, point absorber-type wave energy device. It uses waves’ orbital motion to drive a power take-off system that generates electricity below the ocean surface.
In recent months, Carnegie appointed Germany’s DGWA as its advisor for European markets and partnered with engineering firm SKF to advance CETO commercialisation.