The company Ocean Energy Ltd. was founded in 2002 by Michael Whelan and John McCarthy. Initial model test to prove the concept were conducted at the Hydraulics and Maritime Research Centre of University College Cork at 1:50 scale, followed by further tank testing in
École centrale de Nantes, France at 1:15 scale.
Quarter-scale tests, Galway Bay From December 2006, a quarter-scale version of the OE12 was tested at the Ocean Energy Test Site in
Galway Bay, near
Spiddal. It was moored on site on Christmas day, and survived waves of up to during a
force 11 storm on New Year's Eve. The buoy was 12 m long, 6 m wide, and 6 m high (approx. 39×20×20 ft), and weighed 28 tonnes. It was originally scheduled to be deploy to the US Navy's Wave Energy Test Site (WETS) in 2019. The device was finally deployed by Ocean Energy USA at the WETS off the windward coast of
Oahu on 19 July 2024. It has a rated power of 1.25 MW, and is expected to be connected to the grid in the coming weeks.
WEDUSEA Project As part of the Horizon Europe WEDUSEA project (Wave Energy Demonstration at Utility Scale to Enable Arrays), Ocean Energy and partners plan to adapt the design and test an OE35 device at the
European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney, Scotland. , installation of the device is scheduled for June 2026. == Future projects ==