The European Commission has selected two wave projects to share a €1.5m grant from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund.
The Strategic Environmental Assessment of Wave energy technologies (SEA Wave) project will collect, process, analyse and share environmental data from devices deployed at the European Marine Energy Centre off Orkney in Scotland.
The project involving participants from the UK, Portugal, Finland, Sweden, Belgium and Ireland aims to develop a risk-based approach to project licencing with efficient planning and consenting procedures.
The second project, Wave Energy in Southern Europe (WESE) will work with three wave energy devices installed in Spain and Portugal.
WESE will collect and process environmental data to develop licencing guidance and use maritime spatial planning concepts and tools to help with site selection.
The EU Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME) is managing the selection and follow-up of these projects on behalf of the Commission.
“This kind of research is one of the critical recommendations of the Ocean Energy Strategic Roadmap: Building Ocean Energy for Europe and will help reduce environmental risks when licensing future commercial operations,” said EASME.
Image: Billia Croo wave test site in Orkney (Aquatera)
EU splashes €1.5m wave cash
By EBS