Renewable energy developer Carnegie Wave Energy has signed a funding agreement with the Irish government's Sustainable Energy Association (SEAI) to evaluate potential wave energy sites in Ireland and develop a site specific conceptual design.
SEAI and Carnegie will each fund 50% of the project, which forms first phase of detailed design for a potential 5MW commercial demonstration project in Irish waters.
Ireland-based engineering firm RPS Consulting Engineers has been appointed to undertake the study.
According to Carnegie, the Irish government is providing grant funding to support research, development and deployment of ocean energy and has established a feed-in tariff of EUR220 per MWh for ocean energy.
Ireland has also set a national target to produce 33% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020 including specific ocean energy targets of 500MW by 2020.