Ocean DEMO opens second call as support packages announced
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A fresh call to marine energy developers has gone out as a number of companies were granted support from an EU-funded project.
Successful applicants will be able to test their renewable energy devices at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney as well as a number of other sites across Europe.
The EU-funded Ocean DEMO project launched its second call at the Ocean Energy Europe Conference and Exhibition in Dublin.
The project has also awarded recommendations for support to 12 offshore renewable energy projects under its first call, which closed in July. EMEC says the high number of successful applicants shows the growing demand for testing innovative offshore renewable technologies at sea.
Funded by Interreg North-West Europe, Ocean DEMO is a €13 million project aiming to accelerate ocean energy’s transition from single prototype to multi-device farms by providing free access to world-leading test centres at EMEC, the Dutch Marine Energy Centre, Sem-Rev in France and SmartBay in Ireland.
Successful applicants will receive free access to test their ocean energy products and services in real sea environments at the project’s network of test centres. Technology developers can apply for support packages to test multi-device farms or single devices able to scale up to multi-device in the future. Preference will be given to technologies ready to test by spring 2020.
Ocean DEMO’s second call for applications is open until January 31, 2020. Call documents are available on the Ocean DEMO website at www.oceandemo.eu
The following technology developers were granted support packages under the first call by the Ocean DEMO Selection Board:
- Flumill AS
- Waves4Power UK
- Vilicom
- Sinn Power
- SeaQurrent
- Orbital Marine Power
- Laminaria
- Green Marine UK
- FMGC
- Magallanes Renovables SL
- FlexMarine Power
- Bombora Wave Power
The awards are expected to provide a real boost to technology developers by allowing them to test their innovative products and services at sea. It will also help them attract further investment and move along the path to commercialisation.
EMEC project manager and Ocean DEMO project leader Nicolas Wallet said: “Europe remains to be leading the world in ocean energy development and it is great to see that the appetite for real sea testing from a number of offshore energy technologies remains strong.
“Ocean DEMO will help these companies scale up their technologies through demonstration while reducing technical risks and overall costs. We look forward to working with these developers across Europe’s leading test centres collaboratively bringing ocean energy to commercialisation.”
