The second Marine Renewables Infrastructure Network (MaRINET2) program, set up to accelerate the development of offshore renewable energy technologies, has been launched today in Dublin, Ireland.
The €10.5 million EU-funded MaRINET2 project aims to accelerate the development of tidal, wave, and offshore wind energy technologies by providing developers with fully-funded access to testing infrastructures for these technologies.
The project, coordinated by the Centre for Marine and Renewable Energy (MaREI), will run for 4.5 years with a consortium of 39 partners in 13 countries along with 57 associated infrastructures, and in addition to providing free access to testing centers, it will also undertake research to improve testing methods.
Jimmy Murphy , Coordinator of MaRINET2, said: “MaRINET is a model for success and demonstrates what we can achieve in terms of collaboration and sharing knowledge transnationally. It will reduce the risk and financial burden of technology development in the offshore renewable energy sector.
“By offering European-wide access to marine energy testing we ensure that the best facilities and expertise in the world are being made available to more people, and that developers are saving several thousands of euro during critical development phases of their technology.”
Partners in the project include the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) and FloWAVE testing facility in Scotland; the Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (Plocan) and Biscay Marine Energy Platform (Bimep) in Spain; WavEC in Portugal; and Tidal Testing Center (TTC) in the Netherlands, among others.
In Ireland, it will provide opportunities for tank testing at the Lir NOTF at the University College Cork (UCC), marine robotics testing at the University of Limerick, large scale structural testing at the National University of Galway, and quarter scale wave device testing at SmartBay.
The project was launched by Jim Gannon, CEO of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), on February 2, 2017.
MaRINET2 will build upon the achievements of the first MaRINET program funded through the FP7, the EU research funding program for 2007-2013.