Wave20 deployment to North Carolina Credit: Olivier Ceberio

Using the power of ocean waves, innovators from Boston, U.S., have developed a technology that can produce fresh water off-grid and without the costly infrastructure of desalination plants.

This invention could help many of the 2.1 billion people around the world who struggle to access safe drinking water, most of those in low-income countries.

The technology, Wave2OTM, was developed by start-up company Resolute Marine Energy. Chief Operating Officer Olivier Ceberiosays it “targets ‘off-grid’ coastal communities in developing nations where a solution to persistent water shortages is urgently needed”.

Importantly, it fills a gaping hole between industrial-scale utilities that are costly and time-consuming to build, and micro-scale solutions for individual households. The only technology currently offered in between involves diesel-powered desalination systems.

And Wave2O can be delivered competitively because it uses “free energy from a consistent and inexhaustible renewable energy resource: ocean waves,” says Ceberio.

The group was selected as a finalist for MIT’s Solve Challenge: “How can […]