Mediterranean well suited for marine renewables

The state of development of blue energies in the Mediterranean Sea, as well as prospects for their further implementation in the future regarding funding, framework and best practice exchanges were discussed on the “Blue Energies in the Mediterranean Sea” seminar.

It was concluded that the five Med Maritime Integrated projects present, namely BLUENE, ENERCOAST, SMART-PORT, Med-IAMER and CoRINThos, helped map areas of the Mediterranean suited to implementing the several existing types of infrastructures for marine energies including tidal, wind, solar, thermal and other renewable energies, while putting them into perspective to financial resources available and corresponding political incentives.

Furthermore, despite their very immature stage of implementation, it appears that blue energies are well suited to the Mediterranean and can be combined with other sectors for the building of devices or use of the energy produced, according to the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe (CPMR).

“The blue energy sector is indeed an expensive and risky one while experiencing infrastructural and administrative limits. Hence the need for European Regional funds, the public and private sectors, and other stakeholders to combine their efforts towards solving these barriers so as to ensure and optimise resources for blue energy development in the Mediterranean,” it is reported by CPMR.

Christos Theophilou, representative of the European Commission, said: “Blue energies fall perfectly within the Integrated Maritime Policy of the European Union and also in the Blue Growth agenda. The blue energy sector could contribute to creating about 10.500-26.500 permanent and 14.000 temporary jobs by 2035.”

CPMR is made up of 150 regions coming from 28 countries, and its aim is to ensure a strong EU regional policy targeted at all of Europe’s regions while working towards the delivery of an integrated maritime policy designed to contribute towards Europe’s economic growth.

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Image: MedMaritime/BlueEnergyTypology/Illustration