OceanSET Project to Support Ocean Energy Implementation

The OceanSET project was recently launched to provide support to ocean energy implementation in line with the European Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan).

It is a 3‐year EU H2020 project with a total budget of €1 million that gathers together 9 partners.

The SET Implementation Plan (SET Plan IP) for ocean energy was adopted on 21 March 2018. To date the focus has been on the development of research and roadmaps which have helped define the aspirations of the wave and tidal sector. The principle of the ocean energy SET Plan IP is to transform those aspirations into operational actions. The target timescale regarding actions listed within this plan is 2025 for tidal technologies and 2030 for wave technologies.

OceanSET has 3 key objectives:

• To facilitate and provide support to the implementation of the SET Plan IP technology development actions;
• To promote knowledge sharing across the European Commission, Member States, Regions and other stakeholders in the ocean energy sector;
• To investigate collaborative funding mechanisms between Member States and Regions.

The OceanSET project will help to obtain a solid understanding of the current activities across Europe regarding ocean energy in order to determine how the sector will evolve.

The development of a collaborative information sharing process across the Member States and Regions is at the core of the OceanSET project. An annual process is proposed, comprising four key stages:

Mapping to gather information on the ocean energy sector across Europe and collect information on policy, financing, technical and environmental activities;

Analysis to compile and analyse the data collected from stakeholders and to identify any areas where gaps exist in information provided / available;

Monitoring to assess the progress of the ocean energy sector by tracking key metrics and to identify areas where progress is lacking and priority areas that need to be addressed;

Review to provide recommendations on the next steps required and to ensure that the priority areas identified in the monitoring stage are aligned with the Member State and Regional agendas.

Several key actions of the project will be carried out in the coming weeks which include:

The distribution of questionnaires to developers and Member States agencies based on indicators defined in advance by the consortium;

The organisation of a knowledge workshop on 30 September 2019 alongside OEE2019 in Dublin to monitor the progression towards ocean energy targets.