Fort Collins-based Czero collaborating on project to harness wave power

FORT COLLINS — Czero Inc., an engineering firm based in Fort Collins, said on Tuesday it will provide engineering services to California-based CalWave Power Technologies Inc. in its effort to harness the power of ocean waves to produce electricity.

CalWave’s patented Wave Energy Converter operates submerged, allowing it to survive stormy seas and be hidden from sight.

CalWave is tapping Czero’s experience working on subsea systems and energy harvesting.

“This is an ideal project for us,” said Guy Babbitt, Czero’s co-founder and chief executive.

Unlike other renewables such as solar PV and wind, ocean power is more continuous and predictable. The challenge is making the systems work well over long periods of time in a cost-effective way in the ocean’s harsh environment.

CalWave is a spinout from UC Berkeley, and it graduated from Cyclotron Road, a fellowship program for entrepreneurial scientists and engineers, at the end of 2016.  In 2017, CalWave received a multimillion-dollar contract from the U.S. Department of Energy to provide a demonstration of the system.

“We got introduced to Czero several years ago through an adviser of CalWave with experience in the tidal-energy sector,” said Marcus Lehmann, co-founder and chief executive of CalWave Power Technologies. “Since then, we’ve learn about previous fruitful collaborations of Czero on the advancement of other hydro-kinetic energy technologies during the last years’ ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summits. Our team is looking forward to the collaboration with the experienced engineering team of Czero.”

Czero is a mechanical engineering research and development firm specialized in early stage product development. Czero helps companies and government organizations around the world develop innovations for the automotive/heavy truck, oil and gas exploration, renewable energy, and clean-tech industries.

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