In the development of renewable energy sources, technologies for harnessing energy from the sea are currently receiving increasing international attention. It has been estimated that in Europe, this sector has a potential of 188 GW by 2050, which could meet 15% of EU-wide electricity demand. Related technologies have not yet reached the commercial phase and it is believed that they will start to have a significant weight in the energy mix around 2030. The ‘Electricity from the sea’ project mainly addresses the conversion of energy from wave power, an area where there is still no consensus on the most promising configuration, and for which more than a hundred different devices are being developed in thirty countries. The progress and future commercial success of each individual device is linked to whether the technology is proven, reliable and economically viable.

In Italy, a device for generating electricity from wave power has been conceived, developed and realised by RSE within the framework of System Research; the device name is WaveSAX. It is based on the oscillating water column principle and features an innovative configuration in which the turbine (Wells type) is placed in the liquid phase.

In the research year, a new campaign of wave and current measurements was launched in the Port of Civitavecchia, and a preparatory activity was conducted for developing a wave prediction system; the architecture of the wave prediction system was designed based on and preliminarily applied to two case studies. In addition, the 1:5 scale hydraulic prototype of WaveSAX equipped with a Wells turbine was completed with the generation and control system and was tested in a seakeeping tank at CNR INSEAN in Rome. An analysis was conducted to optimise the operation of the 5-blade Wells turbine, similar to that has already conducted on 3- and 4-blade turbines. An in-depth analysis was then carried out to determine the capital costs of WaveSAX.