It was whilst learning to kite surf and being buffeted by the waves that I realised the immense power within waves. With a number of bruises and this new insight, I focused my attention on trying to figure out how to harness wave power for my final year thesis project at Brunel university.

This resulted in the creation of RWP0001, the Dyson and best of British engineering award winning wave power system. The multi-axis absorbing machine showed great potential, but ultimately required too much capital investment to fully realise. I therefore decided to shift my attention towards designing smaller machines, which I knew would enable an industrial design approach to designing wave power machines.

There have been hundreds of designs between RWP001 and MANTA, all of which have been refined by testing, simulations, and cost engineering. All this development work has resulted in MANTA, a state of the art small scale and low cost wave energy converter, which promises to make wave power more accessible to a range of markets.

Along MANTA’s development pathway, there have been a number of tools and systems created, to enable testing and development to progress in a time and resource efficient manor. These tools and systems, such as AQUAPOD, and AQUASTAT IoT, either did not exist, or, they were too expensive. However, they are now offered alongside MANTA as developed products.

I am absolutely determined to make wave power a success and will continue to use my time and expertise to help make this a reality.

Sam Etherington | Aqua Power Technologies Founder