[MUSIC PLAYING]
INNA BRAVERMAN: I always felt like life has given me
a second chance, and I should do something good with it.
Only two weeks after I was born, the Chernobyl nuclear reactor
exploded.
It created huge health problems in the region.
One day, I was in my crib and just stopped breathing.
I was clinically dead.
Luckily, my mom gave me mouth-to-mouth resuscitation,
which saved my life.
I grew up in a small town called Akko.
Akko was pretty boring.
There were no shopping malls or cinemas so most of my time
was spent on the beach.
Later in life, I found out two very important things.
The first is that wave energy can
produce twice the amount of electricity
that the world produces now.
The second thing was that one out
of eight people in the world are currently
dying premature death as a direct result of pollution.
I thought to myself, definitely the seas
and the oceans around us could be
the solution for that problem.
One day, I was invited to a pool party.
A pool party is definitely not the place
to do business or work on patents.
But there I was sitting in the pool, drinking cocktails,
and next to me was a guy named David.
So I asked him, what's your passion?
He said, wave energy.
David and I were not engineers and so
couldn't make sketches, blueprints,
or calculations that are needed in order to make
an idea into reality.
So we hired engineers that could do the practical design work.
My passion and belief really helped overcome many obstacles
and persuade the right people.
It sounds crazy, but that moment was the beginning
of our company, Eco Wave Power.
And here I am, six years later, in the first wave energy power
station in Europe operating here in Gibraltar.
In operation mode, the floaters are going up and down,
pushing the hydro cylinders, which
transmit hydraulic fluid through the pipes
into the machinery room.
So here we are in Eco Wave Power's land-located machinery
room.
The hydraulic fluid from the hydro cylinders
is transferred into land-located accumulators.
Inside the accumulators, a pressure
has been created, which is used to turn the hydro motor, which
turns the generator that sends clean electricity
into the Gibraltar grid.
The whole system is controlled by smart automation system,
which makes sure that the electricity is
being sent in a stable manner.
Here we can see around me operating the automation
system.
The woman you see in front of you
today is very different to the one that started
the company six years ago.
You know the feeling when you know all the answers
but no one is asking you?
They directed all their questions only to David.
So I kept answering their questions until, after a while,
they realized, hey, this girl knows what she's talking about.
Nowadays, I feel much more confident presenting
to high-ranking businessmen and government officials.
My biggest passion is to also bring it
to developing countries, because they have
the greatest need for energy.
70% of sub-Saharan Africa isn't connected to any source
of electricity, although the continent is
surrounded by a huge coastline.
Imagine the energy we could generate
with those waves and the lives we
could change if we bring electricity there.
I had a great idea.
But I had no way of making it come into life.
I didn't have engineering knowledge.
I didn't have the contacts.
I didn't have the money.
Still, I decided to pursue my passion,
because passion is the greatest renewable energy source.
I still have big dreams for Eco Wave Power.
I'm excited to be a partner in this sector
and actually spread wave power all over the world.
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