Page 18: of Marine Technology Magazine (January 2024)

TECH FEATURE WAVE POWER

All images courtesy Mocean Energy

MOCEAN ENERGY

AIMS TO CREATE AN OFFSHORE

RENEWABLE MICROGRID

Garnering power from ocean waves is a generation behind the progress of offshore wind, but Mocean Energy, led by founder and managing director Cameron McNatt, is aiming to help offshore companies power up it’s offshore and sea? oor assets with its Blue Star system. A 10kW Blue

Star prototype now has more than 14 months of operational experience under its belt, and the goal for 2024 is completion of that trial and continuing the path toward commercialization.

By Greg Trauthwein

To start us off, can you give us a by the numbers look at in Ocean Engineering at Oregon State University, which is

Mocean Energy today? where I ? rst started working on Wave Energy. Next I went to

Mocean Energy has been operating since 2016, today we have the University of Edinburgh to do my PhD in Hydrodynamics 23 people. We have built a 10-kW prototype that’s been tested and Wave Energy. And then the funding opportunity came up at sea for more than 14 months. Our ? rst product, Blue Star, and my co-founder Chris Retzler and I started Mocean.

will be 20 kW of wave energy and ? ve kW of solar and that will be about saving money and CO2 in offshore operations. Before we dig into BlueStar and its application in helping to electrify the sea ? oor, can you give us the overview of the

What attracted you to this business and when did you know Mocean wave energy converter technology?

that yours would be a career in ocean technology? Conceptually, our wave energy devices is very simple me-

Like most careers, it’s a bit of a winding journey. I grew up chanically: we have a big hinge and waves cause a ? exing in Maryland going out on the water and sailing. My ? rst job about that hinge that drives a generator. But what we’ve was with a company that developed software for naval archi- brought to the table is innovations around the shape of the tecture applications, and I ran with that and earned a Master’s machine. Our prototype has these big scoops on the front and 18 January/February 2024

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