Jotun celebrates successful trial of wave energy system

Together with other partners supporting Waves4power, a Swedish-based clean energy company, Jotun is celebrating an innovative renewable energy system that harnesses the power of waves.

After years of development and testing, Waves4Power has installed a buoy equipped with a wave energy converter off the island of Runde, Norway.

The complete system is now delivering electrical power to the Norwegian power grid.

The unit can supply up to 250,000-kilowatt hours, capable of supplying 10-15 normal households with power for a year.

Jotun supplied both protective and antifouling marine coatings to the WaveEL prototype.

The wave action raises and lowers a water piston inside a 43 metre acceleration tube, generating energy that is converted to electricity.

The platform is held in place with specially designed marine cables.

According to Anders Braekke, Global Concept Director – Energy, Jotun is proud to be a part of the project: ”Jotun works with many companies active in a broad range of industrial segments to provide protection and help them reduce their environmental impacts.

"Waves4Power is a true innovator within the clean energy sector and we are happy to provide them with our support.”

Braekke notes that ocean waves represent the single largest untapped source of renewable energy today.

Converted into electricity, wave energy could potentially satisfy up to one tenth of current global power demands.

"Jotun has a long history supplying offshore energy projects from oil rigs to wind towers, so wave energy represents an interesting growth opportunity for Jotun,” said Braekke.

"Waves4power has plans to scale up production of these units to supply energy to offshore fish farming facilities, and we believe the success of the project will accelerate development in this industry.”

Jotun supplied about 4,000 litres of modern epoxy systems and advanced selfpolishing antifoulings to the project, including Marathon 500 (a high build epoxy primer), Safeguard Universal (an anticorrosive undercoat) and SeaMate, a premium self-polishing antifouling.

"Part of the genius of the WaveEL system is its simplicity – many competing systems have many moving parts that represent a high failure risk,” said Jan-Inge Glenberg, Protective Coatings Sales Director.

"The expertise of their design team has created a reliable, truly innovative system that may revolutionise the wave energy segment.”

Waves4Power has strategic partnerships with a number of leading companies, including Jotun, who share a common vision to develop a system that will reach 25 years of service-free operation.

The system was presented to HM King Harald and a wide audience in Runde, Norway on September 21.