Ocean DEMO Launches 2nd Call; Announces 1st Call Awards

The EU-funded Ocean DEMO project launched its 2nd call today at Ocean Energy Europe Conference & Exhibition 2019 in Dublin.

The project has also awarded recommendations for support to twelve offshore renewable energy projects under its 1st call which closed in July 2019.

The high number of successful applicants shows the growing demand for – and readiness to – testing innovative offshore renewable technologies at sea.

Funded by Interreg North-West Europe, Ocean DEMO is a €13-million project aiming to accelerate ocean energy’s transition from single prototype to multi-device farms by providing free access to world-leading test centres: EMEC (UK), DMEC (NL), SEM REV (FR) and SmartBay (IE).

Successful applicants will receive free access to test their ocean energy products and services in real sea environments at the project’s network of test centres. Technology developers can apply for support packages to test multi-device farms or single devices able to scale up to multi-device in the future.

Preference will be given to technologies ready to test by spring 2020.

Ocean DEMO’s 2nd call for applications is open until 31st January 2020. Call documents are available on the Ocean DEMO website.

The following technology developers were granted support packages under the 1st call by the Ocean DEMO Selection Board:

• Flumill AS
• Waves4Power UK
• Vilicom
• Sinn Power
• SeaQurrent
• Orbital Marine Power
• Laminaria
• Green Marine UK
• FMGC
• Magallanes Renovables SL
• FlexMarine Power
• Bombora Wave Power

The awards will provide a boost to technology developers by allowing them to test their innovative products and services at sea. It should also help them attract further investment and move along the path to commercialisation.

Rémi Gruet, CEO of Ocean Energy Europe, said: “We are very pleased to announce the opening of Ocean DEMO’s 2nd call for applications to start off our 2019 Conference & Exhibition.

The high number and quality of applications received through the 1st call gives a very promising view of what’s to come for the sector in 2020. It proves once again how close we are to propelling ocean energy into the mainstream, and how important a steady European support is to make it happen.”

EMEC project manager and Ocean DEMO Project Leader, Nicolas Wallet, stated: “Europe remains to be leading the world in ocean energy development and it is great to see that the appetite for real sea testing from a number of offshore energy technologies remains strong.

Ocean DEMO will help these companies scale up their technologies through demonstration whilst reducing technical risks and overall costs. We look forward to working with these developers across Europe’s leading test centres collaboratively bringing ocean energy to commercialisation.”