MaRINET2 awards €1.3M for ocean energy tech development

The MaRINET2 project has awarded €1.3 million to 34 technology development teams to accelerate the development of next generation offshore renewable energy technologies.

The awards were made after the first in a series of competitive calls for proposals for fully funded access to the 57 test infrastructures in the MaRINET2 network.

The support will facilitate nearly 500 days of state-of-the-art testing at 20 facilities around Europe, and is expected to shorten the path to marketplace for next generation offshore renewable energy technologies, according to MaRINET2.

The developers that applied for the support can visit the application portal to check the status of their application, MaRINET2 noted.

Jimmy Murphy, Co-ordinator of MaRINET2, said: “In order to bring their product to market, it is essential for technology developers to de-risk their technologies through rigorous and staged testing programmes. With today’s announcement, the MaRINET2 project is supporting technology developers to do just that.

“What’s more, by helping technology developers test at facilities across the EU, and encouraging knowledge sharing and collaboration, MaRINET2 is strengthening Europe’s position as a center of excellence for offshore renewable energy research.”

Coordinated by the Center for Marine and Renewable Energy Ireland (MaREI) in University College Cork, MaRINET2 is a €10.5m project, funded by the European Commissions’ Horizon 2020 program.

The project provides support to technology developers of offshore wind, wave and tidal to test their devices in research facilities and in real sea conditions.

It is a continuation of the highly successful MaRINET project which ran from 2011 – 2015.