Gibraltar developed its own renewable energy plan and employed Eco Wave Power to install a 5-megawatt wave energy power station that will capture energy produced by the ocean surface waves in the Mediterranean.
Eco Wave Power, an innovative international wave power developer from Israel, has developed proprietary technology for extracting energy from ocean and sea waves and converting it into electricity. With this technology they are able to "deliver effective, sustainable, practical, feasible and affordable wave energy solutions."
The Eco Wave Power (EWP) convertors draw energy from wave power throughout specially-shaped buoys, called "The Wave Clapper" and the "Power Wing", equipped with sensorsthat monitor the surrounding ocean environment and transmit data in real time. "They rise and fall with the up and down motion of the waves, lifting force, change of water level, hydraulic air lock, and incident flux of waves," wrote the developers.
EWP is now not only constructing in Gibraltar, but also in China, where they were able to strike the first commercial agreement to build a wave energy system, and Kenya, where a 100-megawatt system should be built in the near future.
According to Eco Wave Power, Gibraltar's small station will then be expanded to a 5-megawatt power plant in a second phase of construction. It will be able to meet up to 15% of the territory's electricity needs.