Wave Energy Rides the Tidal Wave Toward Sustainable AI Infrastructure
The increasing demand for energy to power AI infrastructure has led to concerns about meeting 24/7 requirements while minimizing costs and emissions. A new white paper by CorPower Ocean, a Cisco Investments portfolio company, explores how wave energy can complement other sources in achieving this goal.
According to the International Energy Agency's latest outlook, global data center electricity consumption is projected to double from 485 TWh in 2025 to approximately 950 TWh by 2030. This growth requires not only securing enough electricity but also having it available around the clock with reliability and affordability.
The study modeled a hypothetical 100 MW flat-load data center in the San Jose, California area, comparing cost-optimized energy portfolios with and without wave energy. The results showed that including wave energy reduced overall system capacity by about 39%, minimized storage needs by more than 90%, and lowered the levelized cost of electricity by 26%.
CorPower's progress in developing its C4 wave energy converter has demonstrated the potential of this technology to generate electricity consistently, even in severe weather conditions. The company is advancing its first industrial wave farms in Portugal and Scotland, with early deployments already underway in Europe.