Producing electricity by harnessing the power of waves is a vast project, which a Spanish engineering company has tackled with apparent success, reports New Atlas. On the BiMEP marine energy platform, located off the coast of Biscay, a province in northern Spain, IDOM is currently testing a low-power wave energy converter, which it has been working on for years.
Called MARMOK-A-5, this point absorber with an oscillating water column resembles a gigantic buoy containing a cylindrical water column. It culminates at 42 meters in height, of which approximately 5 meters emerge from the surface. With a diameter of 5 meters, it is currently anchored to the seabed, at a depth of nearly 90 meters.
In the process of deployment
As early as 2016, earlier versions of this system began to be deployed, but the progress made since then has been significant. The latest version features intelligent control systems, steerable blades and on-board batteries; it seems able to demonstrate its electricity production performance in real maritime conditions.
Waves around the MARMOK-A-5 cause water movement in the internal column relative to the buoy. This movement compresses and expands an air chamber located at the top of the buoy, like a piston. The alternating airflow thus created turns a turbine, generating electricity which is routed to a coastal power grid via an undersea cable.
From a quantitative point of view, the electricity production made possible by the MARMOK-A-5 is not that impressive (around 30 kilowatts, or the consumption of fifteen to twenty American homes during peak periods). But the goal is to be able to deploy it on a large scale once it has been made fully operational.
The device has just been successfully installed and connected to the network. The project is part of EuropeWave, a research and development program led by the European Union, with a budget of 20 million euros and aimed at developing technologies linked to wave energy.
New Atlas takes the opportunity to point out that other wave energy conversion systems have already been tested around the world. This is how in 2024, we were able to observe the imposing OE-25, an 826-ton device off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii, built by Ocean Energy. That same year, the University of Western Australia began testing a new conversion system in King George Bay. In February 2026, the Danish company Wavepiston signed a memorandum of understanding for the launch of a 50 megawatt installation intended to supply the island of Barbados.
