The ‘father of ocean energy’ wins 2023 Vi Maris award

October 26, 2023, by Ajsa Habibic

Tony Lewis, CTO of OceanEnergy, also known as the ‘father of ocean energy’, has been selected as the recipient of the 2023 Vi Maris Award for his contribution to advancing wave and tidal energy and technology.

Vi Maris, meaning ‘power of the sea, is an industry award established by Ocean Energy Europe (OEE), which recognizes an individual’s outstanding contribution to the ocean energy sector.

The announcement of the award winner was made during the OEE2023 Conference and Exhibition in The Hague.

Tony Lewis, who boasts over 40 years working in and for the ocean energy sector, is currently the CTO at OceanEnergy, a member of the Board of Ocean Energy Europe, a Principal Investigator in MaREI, and Professor Emeritus at University College Cork, Ireland.

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Commenting on the award, Tony Lewis said: “It is a great honour for me to receive the Vi Maris award for 2023 from Ocean Energy Europe. I would like to thank my colleagues for recognising my life’s work on wave and tidal energy. We all realise how important the development of this huge untapped energy resource is to climate change and energy security for the future.”

Rémi Gruet, Ocean Energy Europe’s CEO, added: “I have met many great people in the last 10 years working with the ocean energy sector, and Tony is certainly at the very top of the list. His half-century long contribution to advancing ocean energy science and technology is recognised by peers and competitors alike, in academia and business. His support for Ocean Energy Europe has greatly helped us understand and communicate why and how ocean energy has a role to play in tomorrow’s electricity system. And while doing all that, and despite all awards and decorations, Tony has remained as approachable as he’s always been, someone you will always learn from, a model for many of us!”

Lewis and OceanEnergy will deploy a 1 MW wave energy converter at the US navy wave energy test site in Hawaii in 2023, and are currently coordinating the WEDUSEA project, which brings together 14 industry partners from across Europe to work together to commercialize wave energy by demonstrating a second grid connected 1 MW WEC, named OE35, in Orkney, Scotland.