Abstract
This week, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) announced the winners for the DESIGN Stage and the location for the final DRINK Stage of the American-Made Challenges Waves to Water Prize: Jennette’s Pier on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
“The wave conditions for a specific location, such as the wave period and wave height, are crucial to optimize a wave-energy powered system,” said Scott Jenne, NREL principal investigator for the Waves to Water Prize. “With the announcement of Jennette’s Pier, teams now know what kind of environment they’re designing for and can improve their systems accordingly.”
NREL, which manages the Waves to Water Prize, awarded the 17 winning DESIGN Stage teams each $47,000 for demonstrating their systems’ technical capability and plans to build a functional proof-of-concept desalination system. These teams are now preparing to validate their systems in the open ocean at Jennette’s Pier.