Kerala: Vizhinjam port to host India’s pioneering wave energy project

Thiruvananthapuram, Thiruvananthapuram: An Israeli company has launched plans to set up a power generation plant at Vizhinjam Port. Tel Aviv-based onshore wave energy developer Eco Wave Power Global has announced plans to install power floaters at Vizhinjam Port to use wave energy for power generation.

Company spokespersons revealed that preliminary discussions are underway with the Adani Port Authority. If successful, it will become the first wave energy project in India to generate power from waves. In the initial phase, Eco Wave Power Global aims to install floaters on a 980-metre stretch of the port’s embankment. The World Energy Council estimates that wave energy has the potential to generate more than twice the electricity produced worldwide today.

The world’s first wave energy plant was installed on the European coast of Gibraltar. Last August, Eco Wave Power Global inaugurated a 100-kilowatt wave-based power plant at Tel Aviv’s Jaffa Port. Historically, many attempts to generate electricity on the coast have failed, often because of the destructive force of waves hitting the coastal peaks. An experimental station set up 30 years ago at Vizhinjam was destroyed by such forces.