Abstract
The Waves to Water Prize was launched in 2019 with the purpose of creating solutions to pair wave energy power with desalination, with a specific focus on remote and islanded communities. The Waves to Water Prize administered $3.3 million in prizes over five stages to accelerate the development of small, modular, wave-powered desalination systems capable of providing potable drinking water in disaster relief scenarios and remote coastal locations. The prize supported the integration of existing and novel wave energy generation technologies with water technologies that can deliver effective, consistent, durable, and low-maintenance water delivery systems.
As part of the Water Power Technologies Office’s (WPTO’s) Powering the Blue Economy initiative, the Waves to Water Prize contributes to building resiliency in coastal locations by accelerating technological advancement in small, modular, wave energy-powered desalination systems. The prize emphasized early-stage marine energy research and produced some of the first wave-powered desalination prototypes ever to be deployed.