Canada’s Ocean Supercluster has announced $4.1 million to fund AI-powered monitoring of a sustainable wave-powered desalination project.

The project will be led by Oneka Technologies of Sherbrooke, Quebec, working with partners. It aims to accelerate the commercialization and AI-enablement of Canadian ocean hardware platforms to support the global scaleup of sustainable wave-powered desalination solutions. The aim is to expand access to reliable freshwater, and address global challenges including water scarcity, climate change, and environmental sustainability, the group said in a statement.

Oneka -- which received a $1 million investment from Invest Nova Scotia in 2023 -- will work with Ocean Sonics of Truro Heights, N.S; Innovobot Labs of Montreal, QC and Lengkeek Vessel Engineering of Dartmouth.  The Supercluster is investing $1.6 million of the total $4.1 million value, with the balance coming from project partners.

The work will examine how marine assets and ocean datasets can be used to cut in-ocean operational issues and costs, and how low carbon desalination solutions interact with their surrounding coastal environments.

The group said the result will be the world’s first commercial scale, long-term demonstration of a wave-powered desalination system that delivers fresh water to end users and enhanced AI-driven acoustic and IoT monitoring capabilities to multiple offshore sectors.

Based in Atlantic Canada, the Ocean Supercluster is a private-public organization established by the federal government. It is charged with developing the country’s ocean economy. Its goal is to quintuple the size of Canada’s ocean economy to $220 billion by 2035. It’s best known for helping to fund innovation-driven projects.