physics

Wave Energy Scotland

Wave Energy Scotland is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Wave Energy Scotland rather than just read about it. In short: Wave Energy Scotland (WES) is a technology development body set up in 2015 by the Scottish Government to facilitate the development of wave energy in Scotland. WES is a subsidiary of Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), based in Inverness.

Key takeaways

Wave Energy Scotland belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Wave Energy Scotland to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Wave Energy Scotland from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Wave Energy Scotland (WES) is a technology development body set up in 2015 by the Scottish Government to facilitate the development of wave energy in Scotland. WES is a subsidiary of Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), based in Inverness. WES has managed numerous projects resulting from pre-commercial procurement funding calls in six main topic areas: power take-off, novel wave energy converters, structural materials and manufacturing processes, control systems, quick connection systems, and next generation wave energy. Each of these uses a stage-gate process, with fewer successful projects passing to later stages. WES has also commissioned eight landscaping studies in two phases. In 2020, together with the Basque Energy Agency (Ente Vasco de la Energía or EVE), WES set up the EuropeWave programme to develop and test the most promising wave energy technologies, of which three concepts will be tested at sea. This is supported by European Horizon 2020 funding.

Inception The Scottish Government took positive action to support the ailing wave energy sector in Scotland, following the demise of one of the leading developers Pelamis Wave Power. The Energy Minister Fergus Ewing announced an initial budget for the body of £14.3 million over 13 months at the RenewableUK conference in February 2015.

Organisation objectives The original objectives for WES were set out by the Scottish Government as:

Seek to retain the intellectual property and know-how from device development in Scotland for future benefit; Enable Scotland’s indigenous technologies to reach commercial readiness in the most efficient and effective manner, and in a way that allows the public sector to exit in due course; Ensure that the learning gained from support for wave device development and deployment to date, in particular the learning from Scotland’s leading wave technologies, is retained and used to benefit the wave energy industry; Avoid duplication in funding, encourage collaboration between companies and research institutes and foster greater standardisation across the industry; Ensure value for money from public sector investment; and Promote greater confidence in the technical performance of wave energy systems in order to encourage the return of private sector investment. Promote innovation in wave energy technology and encourage collaboration between industry, academia, and government

Stage gate selections The WES development programme uses a series of stage-gates to evaluate technology progress. Through collaboration with the International Energy Agency's Ocean Energy Systems programme, Wave Energy Scotland has helped to develop "An International Evaluation and Guidance Framework for Ocean Energy Technology", first published in 2021. This sets out a clear evaluation methodology for the technical development and cost-effectiveness of wave and tidal energy technologies. A second edition was published in October 2023, adding the important aspect of environmental acceptability which had been missing from the first draft. The framework consists of six sequential stages of development, which is equivalent to those used in the IEC guidelines for testing early stage WECs, and can be linked to the widely-used Technology Readiness Level (TRL) scale.

Project calls The WES development programme uses a staged approach with projects progressing from concept (stage 1), through design (stage 2), to demonstration (stage 3). As of April 2024, WES has held funding calls to start five development programmes, listed below. The successful projects in each stage are tabulated in List of projects funded by Wave Energy Scotland.

In 2023, a sixth area of Next Generation Wave Energy was introduced, focusing on flexible generators.

Power Take-off (PTO) In March 2015, WES announced the fist call of their development programme, for innovative power take-off systems. Depending on the status of the technology, projects of £100k to £4m were sought, with successful applicants eligible to claim 100% of the cost of development. A total of 42 applications were made for this £7m call, with contracts awarded to nine consortia.

In July 2016, a total of 16 Power Take-Off projects were awarded, with over £7m total funding. Nine projects in Stage 1, at around £90k each. Five projects directly into Stage 2, at between £300k and £500k each. One project starting in Stage 3, the CorPower Ocean HiDrive project with £1.9m in funding. In September 2016, four of the nine PTO Stage 1 projects progressed to Stage 2, each awarded funding of around £490k. In March 2017, three of the original Stage 2 projects progressed to Stage 3, with nearly £2.5m funding each. In February 2018, one of the original Stage 1 projects also progressed to Stage 3 and was awarded £2.5m.

Novel Wave Energy Converter Call (NWEC) In June 2015, the second call was announced, this time for "truly novel" wave energy converters. Eight projects were funded for the first stage of the NWEC call, out of 37 applications.

In November 2015, eight projects were each awarded between £250k-£300k for 12 month NWEC Stage 1 projects, a total of £2.25m in funding. Four of these projects progressed to Stage 2 in April 2017, awarded around £700k in further funding. In January 2019, Mocean Energy and AWS Ocean Energy were awarded £7.7m between them for Stage 3 projects. Both companies planned to build half-scale devices and test them at the European Marine Energy Centre in real-sea conditions.

Structural Materials and Manufacturing Processes Call A third call for Structural Materials and Manufacturing Processes was launched in July 2016, looking for materials for the WEC structure or prime mover that would facilitate a step change reduction in LCOE.

In January 2017, 10 awards of around £250k each were made, for 12 month Stage 1 projects. In July 2018, three of these projects progressed to Stage 2, with a further £1.4m in funding between them. In March 2020, two projects then progressed to Stage 3: one Project led by Arup investigating the use of concrete as a structural material, the second led by Tension Technology International will look into a flexible buoyant pod.

Control Systems In April 2017, a call on feasibility studies for Control System was announced, particularly welcoming experience from other related sectors. This was for initial projects of up to £47k lasting three months.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Wave Energy Scotland

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Wave Energy Scotland claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Wave Energy Scotland before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Wave Energy Scotland ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Wave Energy Scotland

In research: Wave Energy Scotland appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Wave Energy Scotland in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Wave Energy Scotland is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Organisations based in Inverness, Organisations supported by the Scottish Government, Renewable energy organizations, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Wave Energy Scotland outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Wave Energy Scotland in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Wave Energy Scotland means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Wave Energy Scotland out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Wave Energy Scotland in simple terms?

Why does Wave Energy Scotland matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Wave Energy Scotland?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Wave Energy Scotland.