The goal of this WaveSPARC prize scoping project to maximize the beneficial impact of a thriving WaveSPARC community. This prize may be funded in the near future. Diligent prize preparation under a formal prize is necessary but not sufficient. Thorough derisking of the most challenging and novel elements of the prize and setting the groundwork for the prize to achieve its core values is essential.
WaveSPARC has been a lab-led effort since 1 October 2014 focused on spurring early-stage marine energy innovation that can be further developed by industry for commercial applications. WaveSPARC provides innovation and assessment tools to support grid-scale wave energy converter (WEC) design concepts with high technology performance levels and low technology readiness levels. It has developed publicly accessible techno-economic assessment tools, novel WEC concepts, and functional requirements for WEC arrays.
By introducing a WaveSPARC Prize, the publicly available and well-received tools created by WaveSPARC would be further propagated and utilized by those within the marine energy industry, as well as associated industries such as materials and soft robotics, among others. The prize would also help spur innovation and collaboration in WEC designs that follow WaveSPARC methodologies.
