EU-backed SafeWAVE project, short for Streamlining the Assessment of Environmental Effects of Wave Energy, has been prolonged until December 2024.
The decision to extend the project was revealed earlier this month, explaining it will enable SafeWAVE to continue addressing the non-technological barriers impacting the future development of ocean energy, a crucial part of the EU Blue Growth strategy.
The project aims to enhance understanding of the environmental effects and risks of wave energy by collecting, processing, analyzing, and sharing environmental data around devices operating at sea, as well as modeling the cumulative impacts of future large-scale deployments.
Before this extension, the EU-backed project had already been extended in March , with the extension end date set for June 2024. This previous extension aimed to help SafeWAVE advance its efforts in harnessing the Atlantic seaboard’s marine renewable energy resources.
Led by AZTI, the project consortium includes technology developers (BiMEP, Wello, CorPower Ocean, and GEPS Techno), consultants, researchers (WavEC, CTN, AZTI, RTSYS, UCC, and Ecole Centrale), and data managers (Hidromod).
The SafeWAVE project builds on the results of the WESE project completed in 2021. Its final aim is to develop a ‘Public Education and Engagement Strategy’ collaboratively with coastal communities in France, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain, and demonstrate a framework for education and public engagement for marine renewable energies.
The project launched in February 2021 and began collecting environmental data around GEPS Techno’s wave and solar energy hybrid WAVEGEM at the SEM-REV test site in France in July 2021.