Wave powered desalination system -technology transfer from a SwedishUniversity to South Africa

Sammanfattning: Fresh water scarcity is a problem that is becoming increasingly important to solve. There areseveral geographical locations around the world that suffer from a shortage of clean water. In South Africa, there are daily rations on how much water a household is allowed to use. AtUppsala University, a technology where a desalination plant is powered by wave energy is being developed. Transferring a technology such as the wave powered desalination technologyinvolves several steps and stake-holders. In this thesis, the success-factors and barriers for such a transfer is being investigated by reviewing relevant literature and interviewing actors whosupport, affect or work closely with processes. Among the important factors for the success of the technology transfer we found that there is a need of having a strong and diverse team, toparticipate in societal activities, to have a working prototype and to hire an experienced business-professional. Furthermore, to assess whether or not the wave climate outside of CapePoint is suitable for operating a wave energy converter (WEC), available wave data was analysed. To put the converted energy in context we examined how many WECs would berequired to power the desalination plant in order to daily generate fresh water to a population of 5000 inhabitants. The energy in the waves varies over the year, and thus also the number ofWECs. To secure enough fresh water 15 WECs are required.