The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) on Orkney will lead on a Europe-wide research project to prevent “valley of death” failures of pre-commercial marine energy projects.
The EUR11million (£9.2million) Funding Ocean Renewable Energy through Strategic European Action (Foresea) project will offer support packages to ocean energy technology developers seeking to test and demonstrate tidal, wave and offshore wind energy technologies in real-sea conditions and leverage the further investment needed to take their product to market.
Emec said investors in the ocean energy sector want to see that technology has been proven to work in the sea and at scale before committing further funds. However, the cost of pre-commercial demonstration of full scale ocean energy technology is high. This results in the so-called “valley-of-death” phenomenon and prevents products reaching the market, it said.
Technology tested at Emec in the last two years by firms such as Aquamarine Power and Pelamis fell into this trap after failing to drum up further funding.
Scottish energy minister Paul Wheelhouse said the project underlined the importance of EU funding to the sector.
“European funding is vitally important and helps support the cutting-edge research needed to ensure Scotland’s wave and tidal energy sector fulfils its potential in the years ahead,” he said.
“Marine energy projects in Scotland have already attracted over EUR 51million of European funding, including more than EUR3.9 million awarded as recently as 9 June 2016.
“Our place in the world’s biggest single market is hugely valuable and safeguards jobs, investment and our long-term prosperity, but our membership of the EU has also been of great benefit to research and development collaboration, including through Emec.
“That is why we are working very hard to maintain our place in the EU, in line with the clearly expressed view of the people of Scotland and to secure continued investment in a sector of our economy that has huge potential.”
Karmenu Vella, European Commissioner for the Environment, Maritime Affairs & Fisheries echoed his statement.
“This programme shows the added value of European cooperation.
“If we are to help ocean energy on a path towards commercialisation, countries as well as companies will have to work together to overcome joint challenges.”
The project is funded by the Interreg NWE (North-West Europe) programme, part of the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund).
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