The second call of the Interreg Atlantic Area funded Blue-GIFT (Blue Growth and Innovation Fast Tracked) project has recommended five ocean energy companies for support to deploy their technology in the Atlantic Area region. This completes the second of three calls for applications in the Blue-GIFT project.
The Blue-GIFT project, coordinated by the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), based in Orkney, Scotland, aims to help Atlantic Area companies test their marine renewable energy technology in real sea environments and prove that power can be economically generated from the Atlantic Ocean.
The 1st and 2nd calls of the project have so far offered support package vouchers to a total of 14 companies, enabling them to access the Blue-GIFT test sites for validation of their technologies in real sea environments.
The companies who received vouchers for testing their technology in the 2nd call are:
- Blue Shark Power System,
- CorPower Ocean,
- Resolute Marine Energy,
- Tension Technology International Ltd and
- Exponential Renewables S.L.
Blue Shark Power System, a French company, is recommended for a support voucher to test its tidal device at SEENEOH test site in Bordeaux, France. The project consists of developing a river version of its marine tidal turbine.
CorPower Ocean Portugal LDA is recommended for a support voucher to test its wave device at Aguçadoura, Portugal.
Ana Brito e Melo of WavEC Offshore Renewables said ‘Corpower has been successfully progressing step by step and we’re keen to see this next phase of the project happening in Portugal, at Aguçadoura test site, benefiting from Blue-GIFT. Aguçadoura has excellent conditions to support real-sea testing and turn promising concepts into well-developed technologies. We look forward to contributing to the success of the project.’
Resolute Marine Energy (RME), Tension Technology International Ltd (TTI) and Exponential Renewables S.L (X1 Wind) were recommended for individual support vouchers to test their respective technologies at the PLOCAN test site. RME will test their Wave2O technology, an autonomous wave-powered desalination plant; TTI a new connector bespoke for synthetic ropes on the mooring system of the EnerOcean W2Power prototype; and X1 Wind will perform an enhanced monitoring of their X30 Floating Wind Platform.
Mairead Elliott (SmartBay Ireland), Blue-GIFT Test Site Access Coordinator said: ‘Blue-GIFT represents a fantastic opportunity for ocean energy developers to access world leading test sites in Europe’s Atlantic Area. With 14 ocean energy developers supported so far with Blue-GIFT vouchers, it is great to see a strong appetite for real sea testing. We hope that the support provided by Blue-GIFT over the remaining years of the project, will continue to assist ocean energy developers in these challenging times ahead.’
Test Site Access Coordinator:
Mairéad Elliott, SmartBay Ireland
Mairead.elliott@smartbay.ie
Project Leader:
Ruari Brooker, European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC)
Ruari.brooker@emec.org.uk
NOTES TO THE EDITOR
ABOUT INTERREG ATLANTIC AREA
As part of the European Union’s Cohesion Policy, Interreg Atlantic Area supports transnational cooperation projects in 36 Atlantic regions of five countries: France, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom, contributing to the achievement of economic, social and territorial cohesion. For further information, visit: www.atlanticarea.eu
CONTACTS
Project Communications Officer:
Janete Gonçalves, WavEC Offshore Renewables
janete.goncalves@wavec.org
BLUE-GIFT website: www.bluegift.eu
TEST SITES
- BiMEP (wave and floating wind) in the Basque Country, Spain;
- PLOCAN (wave and floating wind) in Gran Canaria, Spain;
- SEENEOH (hydrokinetic and tidal) in Bordeaux, France;
- WavEC (wave and floating wind test centre) in Aguçadoura, Portugal.
Whilst not eligible for applications within the Blue-GIFT programme, the project consortium also includes three additional ocean energy test facilities who will support the project with technical expertise:
- EMEC (wave and tidal) in Orkney, UK (Blue-GIFT lead partner);
- SmartBay Ireland (wave and floating wind) from Galway, Ireland;
- Centrale Nantes / SEM-REV (wave and floating wind) in Nantes, France.
PARTNERS
ASSOCIATED PARTNERS
This Press release only reflects the authors’ view. The programme authorities are not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.
