OPERA project members discuss progress in Bilbao

 
The OPERA project consortium has met in the Spanish city of Bilbao to assess progress achieved so far and plan the forthcoming activities.

The meeting, held from April 4-6, 2017, gathered the representatives of the 12 consortium partners and 5 members of the External Advisory Board (EAB) of the EU-funded Open Sea Wave Operating Experience to Reduce Energy Cost (OPERA) project.

The EAB members are Kim Nielsen from Ramboll; Fiona Buckley from Engie; Stuart Bradley from the Energy Technologies Institute; Marina Olsson from the Swedish Energy Agency; and John Fitzgerald from Black & Veatch.

They visited Bimep open-sea test facility on a boat trip and had the opportunity to learn first-hand from the Spanish-based wave energy developer Oceantec about the grid-connected floating OWC device deployed at Bimep since October.

The device represents the baseline configuration for data and experience collection in the OPERA project.

Project OPERA aims to develop technology that would reduce the cost of operating wave energy devices at sea by 50%, accelerate the development of international standards and reduce uncertainties and technological risks.