The European Commission “must deliver coordination of financial support” to ensure ocean energy projects are completed on time to meet an EU target, said Ocean Energy Europe (OEE).
The OEE has presented the European Commission with a detailed pipeline of the 17 wave and tidal projects that could hit EU waters by the end of 2025, representing over 160MW of clean energy and €1.2bn of investment.
These are “more than enough” to meet the European Offshore Renewable Energy Strategy’s target of 100MW by 2025, the OEE stated.
The OEE said that the European Commission and Member States must deliver now on the strategy’s key commitment of coordination on financial support to ensure these projects are completed on time to meet the target.
The group said for projects to be deployed by then, financial support needs to be in place within the next two years.
The confidential “Target 2025” study details the financial, technical and regulatory aspects of these projects, and makes recommendations for action at the EU level.
The study outlines several “complementary ways” in which the Commission and Member States can coordinate on funding.
Bilateral political engagement on existing ocean energy projects is the “quickest and easiest way to kickstart coordination”.
OEE chief executive Remi Gruet (pictured) said:
“10% of the time to 2025 has already passed since the strategy’s publication – now the Commission needs to turn its ambitious objectives into tangible actions.
“This new study serves as a ‘how to’ guide to do just that. Bringing transformational decarbonised new energy sources to market is exactly the kind of situation where European cooperation – the EU’s reason for existence – must come into its own.”