Next Generation Of Ocean Energy Technologies Boosted By Major International Collaboration

Seven partners from across Europe have formed a major international collaborative project worth €1.8 million is driving forward the development of cost effective components, designed for reliable and sustainable ocean energy.

The 36 month Oceanera-Net project is led by Spain’s Tecnalia, with partners Zunibal, Ditrel Industrial, WavEC Offshore Renewables, Smartbay Ireland Ltd, the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, and the Energy Cluster Association of the Basque Country.

The project aims to establish the requirements for monitoring, control and connection components for wave and tidal energy arrays, ensuring that the next generation of these devices is optimised to improve reliability and cost effectiveness.

The project will take forward the development of four critical components for ocean energy:

• A safety monitoring and control device
• A wave measurement buoy
• An umbilical cable monitoring device
• An underwater device-to-cable connector for a floating energy converter.

If we want to succeed in the development of ocean energy technologies, industries and research organisations need to work together.

Ocean energy technologies are moving steadily from laboratory scale models to real scale prototypes and arrays of converters. Delivering reliable and cost-effective technologies will be paramount to the ultimate commercial success of Europe’s ocean energy industry and therefore identifying common components will help reduce costs by driving down both capital and operational expenditure, ramping up volume manufacturing.

Pablo Ruiz-Minguela, Head of Wave Energy for Tecnalia, said:

“If we want to succeed in the development of ocean energy technologies, industries and research organisations need to work together towards cost reduction and high reliability. OCEANERA-NET gives the perfect framework for this collaboration to happen amongst some of the most dynamic regions and countries in Europe.”