Dec 31, 2025
Môr Neidr Project End of Year Update
As we approach the end of the year and the first quarter of the Môr Neidr project, we wanted to share a short update on what the team at Checkmate Sea Energy has been focused on and what’s coming next.
We are in the early phase of a programme where long-term outcomes are shaped. Q1 of the project has been about establishing the technical foundations, aligning delivery partners, and preparing the work needed to move into design, procurement and build activity.
What Môr Neidr is and what we’re aiming to achieve
Môr Neidr (Welsh for “sea snake”) is an 18-month Innovate UK–supported programme advancing Checkmate’s Lobe-Tendon Anaconda wave energy converter technology. The project is designed to improve technology readiness and performance, and to build the evidence base needed to progress toward future open-water sea trials at the Welsh Marine Energy Test Area (META).
Môr Neidr will combine modelling, testing, and prototype hardware development to refine and validate the Anaconda design - while also strengthening wave energy research capability in Southwest Wales.
A quick explainer: the “Sea Snake” (Lobe-Tendon Anaconda)
The Anaconda captures wave energy through a patented “bulge tube” concept: as waves travel along a long flexible tube, they generate internal pressure bulges that move toward a power take-off (PTO) system, where that energy can be converted into electricity. The device can be tuned to maximise energy capture or detuned to improve survivability in harsher sea states.
What we’ve been doing
The first quarter of the project has focused on setting up the programme for delivery and progress through 2025. Work has included:
Programme mobilisation and partner coordination with organisations including Swansea University, CGEN Engineering, the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult and Wave Venture.
Technical planning for modelling and testing, ensuring early analysis will feed directly into design decisions and later validation work.
Scoping the 2026 test programme across modelling, tank trials, PTO dry testing and materials testing.
Looking ahead: key milestones for 2026
During 2026, Môr Neidr will shift from set-up and analysis into prototype production and testing - including:
Advanced numerical modelling to refine the design and performance expectations.
Tank trials to validate performance and inform design iteration.
PTO dry testing to de-risk the power take-off approach ahead of integrated work.
Materials testing to validate behaviour and durability in relevant conditions.
Prototype hardware development, including construction of a section of a 1:4 scale prototype tube as part of the validation pathway.
These activities are designed to progress the technology readiness and performance levels of the Lobe-Tendon Anaconda and to prepare the technology for the next stage, including a future sea trial pathway at META.
Growing the team
We’re also pleased to share that a new hire will be joining the team in January. This additional capability will support the programme as it ramps up through modelling, testing, and prototype work during 2026. The new hire has a strong background in numerical modelling of wave energy converters, and we look forward to sharing more information in the new year.
Creating Impact
By delivering new hardware and research capability in Southwest Wales, Môr Neidr is intended to create resources that benefit Checkmate, Southwest Wales and the wider wave energy community, as well as representing a practical step toward open-water deployment and the longer-term development of commercial wave farms in the Celtic Sea.
Best wishes for the New Year / Pob dymuniad da ar gyfer y Flwyddyn Newydd.
As we approach the end of the year and the first quarter of the Môr Neidr project, we wanted to share a short update on what the team at Checkmate Sea Energy has been focused on and what’s coming next.
We are in the early phase of a programme where long-term outcomes are shaped. Q1 of the project has been about establishing the technical foundations, aligning delivery partners, and preparing the work needed to move into design, procurement and build activity.
What Môr Neidr is and what we’re aiming to achieve
Môr Neidr (Welsh for “sea snake”) is an 18-month Innovate UK–supported programme advancing Checkmate’s Lobe-Tendon Anaconda wave energy converter technology. The project is designed to improve technology readiness and performance, and to build the evidence base needed to progress toward future open-water sea trials at the Welsh Marine Energy Test Area (META).
Môr Neidr will combine modelling, testing, and prototype hardware development to refine and validate the Anaconda design - while also strengthening wave energy research capability in Southwest Wales.
A quick explainer: the “Sea Snake” (Lobe-Tendon Anaconda)
The Anaconda captures wave energy through a patented “bulge tube” concept: as waves travel along a long flexible tube, they generate internal pressure bulges that move toward a power take-off (PTO) system, where that energy can be converted into electricity. The device can be tuned to maximise energy capture or detuned to improve survivability in harsher sea states.
What we’ve been doing
The first quarter of the project has focused on setting up the programme for delivery and progress through 2025. Work has included:
Programme mobilisation and partner coordination with organisations including Swansea University, CGEN Engineering, the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult and Wave Venture.
Technical planning for modelling and testing, ensuring early analysis will feed directly into design decisions and later validation work.
Scoping the 2026 test programme across modelling, tank trials, PTO dry testing and materials testing.
Looking ahead: key milestones for 2026
During 2026, Môr Neidr will shift from set-up and analysis into prototype production and testing - including:
Advanced numerical modelling to refine the design and performance expectations.
Tank trials to validate performance and inform design iteration.
PTO dry testing to de-risk the power take-off approach ahead of integrated work.
Materials testing to validate behaviour and durability in relevant conditions.
Prototype hardware development, including construction of a section of a 1:4 scale prototype tube as part of the validation pathway.
These activities are designed to progress the technology readiness and performance levels of the Lobe-Tendon Anaconda and to prepare the technology for the next stage, including a future sea trial pathway at META.
Growing the team
We’re also pleased to share that a new hire will be joining the team in January. This additional capability will support the programme as it ramps up through modelling, testing, and prototype work during 2026. The new hire has a strong background in numerical modelling of wave energy converters, and we look forward to sharing more information in the new year.
Creating Impact
By delivering new hardware and research capability in Southwest Wales, Môr Neidr is intended to create resources that benefit Checkmate, Southwest Wales and the wider wave energy community, as well as representing a practical step toward open-water deployment and the longer-term development of commercial wave farms in the Celtic Sea.
Best wishes for the New Year / Pob dymuniad da ar gyfer y Flwyddyn Newydd.
As we approach the end of the year and the first quarter of the Môr Neidr project, we wanted to share a short update on what the team at Checkmate Sea Energy has been focused on and what’s coming next.
We are in the early phase of a programme where long-term outcomes are shaped. Q1 of the project has been about establishing the technical foundations, aligning delivery partners, and preparing the work needed to move into design, procurement and build activity.
What Môr Neidr is and what we’re aiming to achieve
Môr Neidr (Welsh for “sea snake”) is an 18-month Innovate UK–supported programme advancing Checkmate’s Lobe-Tendon Anaconda wave energy converter technology. The project is designed to improve technology readiness and performance, and to build the evidence base needed to progress toward future open-water sea trials at the Welsh Marine Energy Test Area (META).
Môr Neidr will combine modelling, testing, and prototype hardware development to refine and validate the Anaconda design - while also strengthening wave energy research capability in Southwest Wales.
A quick explainer: the “Sea Snake” (Lobe-Tendon Anaconda)
The Anaconda captures wave energy through a patented “bulge tube” concept: as waves travel along a long flexible tube, they generate internal pressure bulges that move toward a power take-off (PTO) system, where that energy can be converted into electricity. The device can be tuned to maximise energy capture or detuned to improve survivability in harsher sea states.
What we’ve been doing
The first quarter of the project has focused on setting up the programme for delivery and progress through 2025. Work has included:
Programme mobilisation and partner coordination with organisations including Swansea University, CGEN Engineering, the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult and Wave Venture.
Technical planning for modelling and testing, ensuring early analysis will feed directly into design decisions and later validation work.
Scoping the 2026 test programme across modelling, tank trials, PTO dry testing and materials testing.
Looking ahead: key milestones for 2026
During 2026, Môr Neidr will shift from set-up and analysis into prototype production and testing - including:
Advanced numerical modelling to refine the design and performance expectations.
Tank trials to validate performance and inform design iteration.
PTO dry testing to de-risk the power take-off approach ahead of integrated work.
Materials testing to validate behaviour and durability in relevant conditions.
Prototype hardware development, including construction of a section of a 1:4 scale prototype tube as part of the validation pathway.
These activities are designed to progress the technology readiness and performance levels of the Lobe-Tendon Anaconda and to prepare the technology for the next stage, including a future sea trial pathway at META.
Growing the team
We’re also pleased to share that a new hire will be joining the team in January. This additional capability will support the programme as it ramps up through modelling, testing, and prototype work during 2026. The new hire has a strong background in numerical modelling of wave energy converters, and we look forward to sharing more information in the new year.
Creating Impact
By delivering new hardware and research capability in Southwest Wales, Môr Neidr is intended to create resources that benefit Checkmate, Southwest Wales and the wider wave energy community, as well as representing a practical step toward open-water deployment and the longer-term development of commercial wave farms in the Celtic Sea.
Best wishes for the New Year / Pob dymuniad da ar gyfer y Flwyddyn Newydd.
