Marine renewables take center stage on Canary Islands

The Canary Islands have over the last two weeks welcomed a number of marine renewable energy experts who discussed the state of the sector during several dedicated events.

On June 29-30, leading figures from the Spanish industry and academia took part in the 8th edition of the Marine Renewable Energies Technical Conference in Taliarte.

The event was organized by the Association of Naval and Oceanic Engineers of Spain, Jorge Juan Engineer Foundation, and Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN).

In a week that followed, the Oceanera-Net consortium also held a workshop on ocean energy that was attended by 45 international delegates, mostly from Europe.

The workshop, titled ‘Ocean Energy: Turning Lessons into Constructive Actions’, brought together companies that develop marine renewable energies, along with funding agencies, universities, research and technology centers.

The participating companies, mostly SMEs, welcomed the fact that the event was also attended by funding agencies, as this facilitated a constant exchange of information between the two parties, which in turn, fostered contacts and ideas for the future, PLOCAN said.

On the first day, the agenda included presentations made by 15 different companies on the lessons learned in developing their prototypes. On the second day, the guest speakers made general presentations on the perspectives of some European initiatives, such as ETIP Ocean, and Ocean Energy Systems, in the field of marine renewables.

Joaquín Hernández Brito, Scientific-Technical and Innovation Co-ordinator at PLOCAN, held a lecture highlighting the role the test beds like PLOCAN play in tackling the non-technological aspects relating to testing and validating marine renewable prototypes.

Also, Raúl Rodríguez Arias from Tecnalia, and Patxi Etxaniz from Oceantec, respectively shared the operating experience in real open sea conditions of a prototype aimed to lowering the cost of wave energy.

The agenda also included a range of constructive discussions on finances, business models and innovation or action plans, together with an analysis of gaps and priorities in the field of marine renewable energies.