CalWave is a spin-off company from the University of California, Berkeley's Theoretical and Applied Fluids Dynamics Laboratory (TAFLab) under the technology's co-inventor, Prof. Reza Alam. CalWave's patented technology == the Wave Carpet -- is a novel wave energy converter that is able efficiently to harvest the power of ocean waves to generate fresh water and electricity depending on current demand. CalWave's technology consists of a flexible synthetic seabed, modeled after the mud banks in the Gulf of Mexico, which act as a natural wave energy absorbers. CalWave's device can convert this absorbed energy producing electricity or freshwater. The runner up in the Department of Energy's Wave Energy Prize, California Wave Power Technologies (CWPT) will upscale its WEC (Wave Energy Converter) technology for open-ocean testing. In the Wave Energy prize, CWPT's device demonstrated more than a three-fold improvement in energy capture per unit structural cost. Through testing, the Berkeley, California-based company will validate and update estimated costs for a full-scale version of its technology.
