€2.5M investment program open for testing marine renewable energy technologies

Business & Finance

May 13, 2024, by Zerina Maksumic

Energiaren Euskal Erakundea / Ente Vasco de la Energía (EVE) has promoted an investment support program for the demonstration and validation of emerging marine renewable energy technologies that is open for applications until June 19, 2024.

This program aims to test and validate new wave and offshore wind energy technologies at the Biscay Marine Energy Platform (BiMEP) to boost renewable energy use in the Basque Country.

Eligible actions include demonstration and experimental validation of full-scale or nearly full-scale wave energy capture devices, prototypes of floating marine wind turbines at full or nearly full scale, and of subsystems and components for any of the mentioned prototypes.

The program has a total budget of €2.5 million.

The aid limits for this program are defined as follows: the minimum eligible cost for participation is set at €125,000, while the maximum eligible cost varies depending on the proposed action, extending up to €10 million. Additionally, the maximum grant per action can reach up to €2.5 million, depending upon the type of action proposed.

Located off the coast at Armintza, BiMEP provides an open-ocean environment and intense ocean conditions for testing prototypes of ocean energy collectors and auxiliary equipment.

BiMEP has been up and running since June 2015, providing a site with wave and wind resources for testing the economic and technical viability of different designs, before deciding to advance to the full-scale commercial phase.

Back in March, Carnegie Clean Energy’s subsidiary Carnegie Technologies Spain was awarded €2.1 million grant by EVE for Carnegie’s ACHIEVE+ project, complementing the contract awarded by the EuropeWave Project (€3.75 million) and Renmarinas Demos funding (€1.2 million), creating a total funding pool of €7.05 million for the deployment of CETO at BiMEP in the Basque Country.