The Basque region of Spain and Scotland are collaborating on a five-year project called EuropeWave to provide €20m to for wave energy concepts.
The initiative is match-funded by the European Commission via its Horizon 2020 programme, and Ocean Energy Europe are also project partners.
EuropeWave aims to use a ‘pre-commercial procurement’ approach to identify and fund the most promising wave energy devices from developers across Europe.
Concepts will be assessed according to strict technical and economic performance metrics, and the best performers will be demonstrated in Basque and Scottish open waters at the end of the programme, the partners said.
Scottish Minister for Energy, Connectivity and the Islands Paul Wheelhouse said: “EuropeWave is a great example of how Scotland can continue to collaborate with European partners, like our great friends in the Basque Country, who have very similar aims and objectives to ourselves.
“We can work together to bring forward what can hopefully be a very important technology for the whole global community.”
Basque Minister for Economic Development, Sustainability and Environment Arantxa Tapia said: “This project is an ideal platform for collaboration between two regions in Europe to promote a new sector that contributes to the energy transition, creating a new economy and employment for our citizens.
“It is a clear example of how things should be done.”
European Commission research programme officer Matthijs Soede said: “With EuropeWave we pool public resources for research and demonstration from national and EU level.
“By effective use of these resources, we hope that this will create more impact for the wave energy sector.”
Ocean Energy Europe chief executive Remi Gruet said: “We are delighted to be part of this initiative, which brings together some of the strongest supporters of ocean energy.
“The industry has long identified a pan-European ‘pre-commercial procurement’ as the right route to progress wave energy, so we can’t wait to see this project get underway in 2021.”