CorPower Ocean (Sweden) deployed its C4 Wave Energy Converter at Aguçadoura, Portugal, completing ocean commissioning in 2024 and demonstrating a phase-control technology inspired by the human heart that amplifies wave energy absorption by 5x compared to conventional buoys. The device uses a pneumatic pre-tension system to store and release energy in sync with wave motion, dramatically improving capture efficiency.
Wave energy is Europe's untapped marine renewable resource. While offshore wind has scaled to 100+ GW, wave energy offers complementary generation — waves travel thousands of kilometers and arrive at coastlines with remarkable consistency, providing baseload-like characteristics that wind cannot match. Europe's Atlantic coastline (Portugal, Ireland, Scotland, Norway) has some of the world's richest wave resources, with annual average power densities exceeding 40 kW per meter of wavefront.
CorPower secured a €40M EU Innovation Fund grant to build VianaWave, a 10MW pre-commercial array off Viana do Castelo, Portugal, targeting operation by 2029-30. The project will generate approximately 46 GWh annually and demonstrate the cost reduction pathway needed for commercial wave energy. If wave converters follow the same learning curve as offshore wind — which dropped from €150/MWh to €50/MWh over 15 years — wave energy could become cost-competitive by the mid-2030s.