Project description
Paving the way for wave energy technology
Ocean waves have immense energy that can be harnessed for many applications, such as electricity generation. There are, however, certain challenges which make it hard to take advantage of this energy, such as the fact that wave energy technologies have not been able to achieve commercial viability, as well as the low success rate of support schemes for them. Addressing this, the EU-funded EuropeWave project will build on the work of Wave Energy Scotland to help Europe’s wave energy innovation community transition to commercial viability. To do this, the project will use an innovative ‘pre-commercial procurement’ approach to identify and fund the most promising wave energy technologies from developers across Europe.
Objective
The global potential to harness the power of ocean waves is huge. Europe has 44% of wave energy patents as well as some of the best resources on its Atlantic coastlines. Wave energy technology has, however, not yet achieved commercial viability and conventional public technology innovation support schemes have had only limited success. Convergence/consolidation is needed to deliver the technology the market requires. Without this, investors and industrial developers will not have the confidence to engage with the sector and help make it a significant contributor to the future low carbon energy mix.
EuropeWave builds on the success of the regionally funded PCP programme known as Wave Energy Scotland (WES), set up in 2014 and expands this concept to the European level as mandated by the SET Plan Implementation Plan for ocean energy. WES will be the coordinator of the proposed EuropeWave project and lead a ‘Buyers Group’ of public authorities from the UK (Scotland - WES) and the Basque Country (EVE). The consortium is completed by Ocean Energy Europe, the sector’s representative body, who will enable the widest possible engagement with those influential stakeholders able to maximise the environmental, economic and social benefits of wave energy technology for Europe.
EuropeWave brings together over €22.5m of national, regional and EU funding to provide the boost to Europe’s wave energy innovation community necessary to transition to commercial viability. This will be achieved by procuring a phased competitive programme of R&D to pull forward those technologies that can demonstrate the best potential to achieve the technical and economic performance metrics that will make them investor-ready. Approximately 7 technologies are expected to enter the programme via an open OJEU call with the best performing technologies completing a physical demonstration in the marine environment.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
PCP - Pre-Commercial ProcurementCoordinator
IV2 5NA Inverness
United Kingdom