The Ocean Energy European Research Area Network (OCEANERA-NET COFUND) is a five-year project coordinated by Scottish Enterprise, with partner from the Basque Country, Brittany, Ireland, Pays de la Loire, Portugal, Spain and Sweden and part funded by the European Union under the Horizon 2020 programme.
The Cofund model is designed to combine funding from nation and regional agencies and the European Commission, to support collaborative, cross-border research and development projects. OCEANERA-NET COFUND will run two joint calls for collaborative projects and a range of events and activities designed to encourage knowledge exchange and disseminate project results.
Funding has been announced for eight demonstration projects under the first call:
SEABLADE – systematic evaluation and analysis of blades for a 2mw floating tidal energy converter – Led by Irish company Eire Composites, working with Scottish tidal developer Orbital Marine Power.
TOPFLOTE – Targeted optimal pitch module for floating tidal energy – Led by Scottish tidal energy developer Orbital Marine Power.
RESOURCECODE – Resource characterisation to reduce the cost of energy through coordinated data enterprise – Led by the European Marine Energy Centre.
CF2T – Competitive Foundation for Tidal Turbine – Led by the Brittany-based tidal company Sabella.
INNOTEX – Innovative Thermal Exchangers – Led by French company Naval Energies, this project focuses on ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC).
SPhorcis – Reshaping eforcis: wave energy converter for offshore small power applications – Led by Spanish company Smalle Technologies.
UMACK – Universal mooring, anchor & connectivity kit demonstration – Led by Swedish wave energy developer CorPower Ocean.
WEP+ – WAVE+ Energy Project – Led by Neureus Technologies from Spain – operation of the wave energy technology in conjunction with a newly designed energy storage system.
The total grant funding is €7.8 million; €2.6 million from the EU as co-funding with the national and regional funding organisations.
The projects are just getting started and over the next three years will develop, test and validate new technologies and approaches which will contribute to lowering the cost of energy and accelerating the commercialisation of the sector.
Second Call for Projects to be launched early 2019:
A second joint call for projects will open January 2019. The confirmed funders are Scottish Enterprise, Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, Swedish Energy Agency, Region Pays de la Loire, CDTI (Spain) and FCT (Portugal). The call will cover all ocean energy technologies, components, subsystems, materials, grid connection and power systems, installation, operation and maintenance, resource and impact assessment. Outline information is available on the project website and full call documents will be published in January. The deadline for proposals will be in April 2019 with applicants informed of the decision in October 2019.
Contact information:
Karen Fraser,
OCEANERA-NET COFUND Coordinator, Scottish Enterprise
Email: karen.fraser@scotent.co.uk
Website: https://www.oceancofund.eu