The EU-funded Ocean DEMO project has awarded recommendations for support to 12 offshore renewable energy developers under its third call.
The awards will support developers on their path to commercialisation and ease the transition of ocean energy towards multi-device farms by providing free access to open sea test sites.
Funded by Interreg North-West Europe, Ocean DEMO is a €13m project aiming to accelerate ocean energy’s transition from single prototype to multi-device farms by providing free access to world-leading test centres: EMEC (UK), DMEC (NL), SEM REV (FR) and SmartBay (IE).
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 looking to scale up to multi-device in the future.
The following technology developers were recommended for support packages under the third call by the Ocean DEMO Selection Board.
These included Aqua Power to test the LOTUS, a prototype floating energy storage device, the Dundalk Institute of Technology to develop a wave-powered sensor buoy, and FORSSEA Robotics to trial ARGOS, a Light-Intervention Smart ROV.
Also successful was Geps Techno to build up and upgrade from the first phase of testing of its Wavegem wave energy device, Inyanga Maritime to demonstrate an offshore platform for generation of hydrogen from tidal energy and Leask Marine to deploy a 100kW shallow water tidal energy device
Under the programme, Mocean Energy is to demonstrate a ½-scale prototype of Blue Horizon, its utility-scale wave energy converter, the National Oceanographic Centre will show the capability of the fibre optics enabled Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) for environmental monitoring, and Oceans of Energy BV will operate an offshore floating solar farm.
The final awardees were SeaOWL to demonstrate its VMAS maritime surveillance system, Supergrid Institute to validate an underwater electric hub and TIDETEC AS to test its tidal energy turbine.
The support packages are expected to provide a real boost to technology developers by allowing them to test their pioneering ocean energy technologies 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 Lisa Fitzpatrick said: “The level of interest we’ve seen for Ocean DEMO’s 3rd call is extremely encouraging for the future of the project and the sector in general.
“Despite the challenges we faced this year, many technology developers are eager and ready to deploy as soon as possible.
“We’re very enthusiastic about our 2021 deployment pipeline and remain strongly committed to helping developers build their technologies up from single machine to multi-device farms.”