Through its Interreg 2 Seas Programme, Europe has awarded €5.9 million to the ENCORE project: Energising Coastal Regions with Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE).
The goal of the project is to advance the rapidly emerging ORE sector. With the ambition to become a global industry leader, the 2 Seas ORE sector needs support to successfully scale-up.
ENCORE offers advanced technical and business support services to accelerate the ORE sector in the 2 Seas region.
As part of the service portfolio, international certification schemes will be applied to reduce risks and increase investor confidence.
In each country, regional impact campaigns will be set up to involve supply chain and stakeholders in the project.
“ This subsidy provides considerable support for the sector and is an important step towards commercialisation ”, said Peter Scheijgrond , project manager and Head of Services at Dutch Marine Energy Centre (DMEC). “It will help to attract new capital and prepare the sector for growth. We will capture all learnings from the project in an online education & training programme to train and prepare new young talent in the sector.”
Services will be delivered to four next generation ORE companies, covering new technologies; river current technology: Water2Energy (NL) and EEL Energy (FR), offshore floating solar: Oceans of Energy (NL) and wave energy: Teamwork Technology (NL).
To support the four ORE companies, lead partner Dutch Marine Energy Centre (DMEC) brings together knowledge partners from 4 European countries: the European Marine Energy Centre and Inyanga Marine Projects from UK, Artelia and Bureau Veritas from France, Ghent University from Belgium, and DMEC and Deftiq from the Netherlands.