The EU-funded FORESEA program has approved funding for six offshore renewable energy developers to deploy their technologies at the Irish SmartBay marine and renewable energy test site.
FORESEA’s user selection board picked demonstration projects led by Sea Power, Bluwind Power and Marine Power Systems to receive support to test their technologies.
The €11 million project also supported Blue Ocean Monitoring, UGen and Calwave which will be deploying their technologies at the quarter scale test site at Galway Bay as well.
The announcement marks a new phase in ocean energy development in Ireland, with more technologies than ever planning to hit the water in the coming 2 years, FORESEA said.
It follows the granting of a foreshore license to the SmartBay test site in December 2017 by the Irish government.
Welcoming the awards, John Breslin , General Manager of SmartBay, said: “Today’s announcement marks the beginning of a new phase for the development sustainable low carbon technologies in Ireland, with a significant increase in the planned testing of a range of promising devices in the SmartBay test site.”
Gareth Stockman , CEO of Marine Power Systems, said: “Marine Power Systems is developing its wave energy technology, the WaveSub, to generate clean, reliable and affordable electricity from this vast renewable energy source.
“We are delighted to have been recommended for support by FORESEA’s board and look forward to tapping into the expertise and the state of the art facilities at the SmartBay test site as we progress on our journey towards full-scale commercial roll out of the WaveSub.”
A final award of support is secured by the developer upon contract with the test center, added FORESEA.
FORESEA is an EU initiative, financed by the Interreg North West Europe program, that helps bring offshore renewable energy technologies to market by providing free access for developers to a world-leading network of test centers across Europe.
To remind, FORESEA launched its fourth call for proposals, running until June 29, 2018, to help technology developers from other offshore sectors transition into the renewable energy market.