A new prototype of a floating desalination plant powered by wave energy, which will be tested in the test bed of the Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN), in the port of Las Palmas, has been presented by the Norwegian company Ocean Oasis, which has developed the technology.
This innovative desalination plant, named "Gaia", will allow the production of fresh water in ocean waters, taking advantage of wave energy to supply fresh water to the coast.
The company's Operations Director, Sebastián Feimblatt, explained in statements to the media that they will test the prototype installed on the Juan Sebastián Elcano dock of the Port of La Luz and Las Palmas for one year, and after that period, they will test a larger buoy with greater size and capacity.
The project's investment reaches two million euros and has both public and private money, from Norwegian innovation institutions, ERDF funds from the European Union, as well as the collaboration of the Government of the Canary Islands, the Cabildo of Gran Canaria, and ICEX Spain Export and Investments.
Feimblatt specified that the desalination objective will be between 500 and 1,000 cubic meters per day, "a relevant capacity for the amount of consumption in the Canary Islands".
"What we intend to do is collaborate with companies that already desalinate to increase their capacity and reduce their water pressure in a sustainable way," said the Operations Director of Ocean Oasis, who also added that this prototype is autonomous and can be anchored anywhere easily.
"And from there, water is desalinated and delivered to the coast, reducing the environmental impact and reducing the energy consumption of current desalination plants," Feimblatt specified, who also pointed out that the water will be taken to the connection points with the system on land through a simple pipeline through the seabed.
According to Feinblatt, the Canary Islands provide them with the "ideal" environment to test their technology, both for the infrastructure, experience, and location of PLOCAN, and for the possibility of developing their solution in a market "as relevant as that of the Canary Islands in terms of desalination and offshore activities".
The technical manager of Ocean Oasis Development, Thomas B. Johannessen, detailed during the presentation that the prototype, assembled in the port of Las Palmas, is seven meters in diameter and ten meters high and weighs about 100 tons.
How does the prototype work?
"The device extracts energy from the waves through the relative movement of two bodies and uses this energy directly to perform a reverse osmosis desalination process without the need to produce electrical energy, thus increasing the efficiency of the process," he said.
He added that the anchoring of "Gaia" will be carried out in the southern area of the PLOCAN test bed at the height of Punta de la Mareta.
The director of PLOCAN, José Joaquín Hernández, assured that Gran Canaria and the Canary Islands are "the benchmark bank in issues related to marine renewable energies in Europe" and highlighted the "enviable conditions" of resources, port infrastructures, knowledge, and research centers.
Thus, Hernández has asked, in relation to the administrative simplification of bureaucratic issues linked to renewables, to "advance at a more accelerated speed in accordance with the climate urgency" and in a situation "in the middle of a war where energy is being used as a weapon".