OES highlights ocean energy potential for small islands and remote coastal areas

Ocean Energy Systems (OES) new report shows that islands and other off-grid markets may present opportunities for ocean energy developers to deploy their technologies while providing sustainable energy to local communities.

The report ‘Ocean Energy in Islands and Remote Coastal Areas´outlines the outcomes of three workshops organized by the OES in three different regions of the world, South-East Asia (Singapore), Europe (France) and the Pacific (Hawaii), exploring the opportunities and solutions to address the challenges identified in islands and remote locations.

Significant progress has been made in the last decades resulting in improvements to the reliability and performance of the ocean energy devices and attracting interest and support for further development.

The small and remote nature of islands and coastal areas presents a compelling argument for the exploitation of their ocean energy resource potential.

The energy systems in these locations face challenges that include security of supply and access to modern, clean, and affordable energy. This report discusses some of the challenges regarding socio-environmental, regulatory, infrastructure, and financial issues.

“Small islands and remote locations have often an abundant ocean energy resource and developing projects in such environments is a significant opportunity.

“Although connected to mainland grid, the Orkney islands in the UK hosts the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC).

“EMEC has been successfully testing and deploying ocean energy technology innovations and serving as a platform to raise awareness about the benefits and positive societal impacts of ocean energy technologies, and this can be replicated in many other island sites around the world.”

The report will showcase in the first of an OES webinar series that will highlight the ocean energy contribution to the blue economy, OES noted.

Yann-Hervé De Roeck of France Energies Marines also added:

“This report clearly highlights the benefits of ocean energy to facilitate the energy transition as well as sustainable development in small islands and remote coastal areas. Several islands have regulatory frameworks that are supporting the integration of clean energy technologies and, thus, could facilitate the deployment of emerging technologies such as wave, tidal stream or OTEC. Also off-grid markets may present opportunities and synergies with other industries.”