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Our Policy Director Donagh Cagney explains why ocean energy is well-placed to be as successful as wind and solar in Europe’s renewables market on Innovation News Network.

As temperatures in Europe rise even faster than expected, the effects of climate change are getting very real. Coupled with skyrocketing energy prices that stem from an overreliance on fossil fuels, it is clearer than ever that Europe’s future depends on its transition to a 100% renewable energy system.

We need to act now to reach that goal, by developing a range of innovative renewable energy sources to complement the already well-established wind and solar sectors. One of those innovations is ocean energy – the next big thing in energy. The oceans are the world’s largest untapped source of power. Ocean energy technologies harness the power of tides and waves, as well as differences in temperature and salinity, to produce electricity.

Ocean energy is clean, renewable and has the potential to provide 10% of Europe’s current electricity needs by 2050. That is enough to power 94 million households every year. In addition, a strong ocean energy industry will yield many economic benefits for Europe, from local jobs to global export opportunities.

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Ocean Energy Europe signed a joint letter supporting the objectives of the REPowerEU Plan to phase out Europe’s dependency on fossil fuels faster and increase investments in climate innovation to deliver energy savings, diversification of energy supplies, and an accelerated roll-out of renewable energy.

However, we believe that bolder action can be made, and specifically that concrete strategies should be put in place to accelerate the deployment of the clean technologies we need to enable a renewable-heavy energy mix. Long-duration energy storage, innovative renewables and smart grid technologies in particular need clear and binding targets.

Read the full letter

Ocean Energy Europe (OEE) welcomes the European Commission’s REPowerEU initiative, which at its heart has a massive and accelerated roll-out of renewables. The Commission recognises that this is Europe’s only path to escape fossil fuel dependency and to rapidly decarbonise.

Much of REPowerEU focuses on important steps to speed up permitting processes. A new law will recognise renewable energy as ‘an overriding public interest’. And renewable projects can be fast-tracked in new ‘Go To’ areas.

But REPowerEU also recognises that Europe must remain a global leader in renewable energy technology – and this is backed up with new funding later this year.

The text confirms that the Innovation Fund’s large-scale call this autumn will have a doubled budget of circa €3bn and 3 separate funding windows.

Renewable activities are particularly suited to 2 of these windows – which focus on ‘innovative clean tech manufacturing’ and ‘mid-sized pilot projects for validating, testing and optimising highly innovative solutions’.

The outcome of The North Sea Summit gathering the heads of the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, and the European Commission is a decisive and historic step. It paves the way for green energy production amongst the democracies sharing the marine space of the North Sea.

We encourage both the Danish and Dutch governments and parliaments to also integrate wave energy in the energy strategy for the North Sea region by setting both national and regional deployment targets. Targets will accelerate and streamline the integration of wave energy into the offshore renewables mix.

Wave energy is a central part of Europe and the North Sea region’s future renewable energy system. The EU’s Offshore Renewable Energy Strategy includes a 40 GW target for ocean energy and highlights the North Sea as a renewable energy hotspot. And adding wave energy aligns well with the vision for the North Sea Marine Spatial Plan and can count on stakeholder support from other sea space users.

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The Innovation Fund is the EU’s most impactful tool to drive clean energy innovation. But its award criteria put renewable projects at a structural disadvantage.

This is contrary to the original policy intent. And it undermines the REPowerEU objective of substituting fossil fuels with renewables.

We therefore call upon the Commission to:

1. Dedicate the 3rd call large-scale calls to renewable energy categories only – to restore confidence in the Fund within these sectors and correct for earlier calls

2. Adjust the rules of future calls so renewable energy projects may compete

3. Create calls for intermediate-sized projects – with capital expenditure of between €7.5m and circa €60m

Read the full letter

For the medium and longer-term, the clean technologies that are already proven at demonstration scale must be replicated, so that they can begin to compete on the market with existing technologies by 2025. These include renewable hydrogen production and its transport infrastructure, deep industrial decarbonisation for cement, steel and chemicals, new forms of renewable power such as floating offshore wind and ocean energy supported by long-duration energy storage and deep improvements to the electricity grid to handle intermittency.

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Ocean energy deployments are back to pre-pandemic levels, with Europe installing over ten times as much tidal energy capacity and three times as much wave energy compared to 2020. Investment interest in the sector also rose, with a slew of announcements by large industrial players and public authorities. Statistics published today by Ocean Energy Europe show that ocean energy is back on track, despite Covid-19 restrictions still affecting activity last year.

Both the wave and tidal energy sectors installed significantly more capacity in 2021 than the previous year, adding 1.39 MW and 3.12 MW respectively worldwide. While Europe still dominates global tidal stream activity, more and more wave capacity is being installed outside Europe, often driven by significant government support.

An increase in private investment and the entrance of important industrial players into the sector reflect the growing appeal of ocean energy to investors, power producers and manufacturers. In 2021, the sector signed deals with GE Renewable Energy, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (K-Line), Chubu Electric Power, TechnipFMC and Schneider Electric. Governments in the UK, Italy, Spain and the USA also committed significant new funding to ocean energy and innovative renewables.

The call for abstract submissions for ICOE-OEE 2022 is now OPEN! Submit your abstract online via our online platform.

Share your most recent achievements, successes, technical developments, and lessons learnt during this world-renowned joint conference on ocean energy. The deadline for submissions is March 31, 2022, with results announced by end of May 2022.

SUBMIT YOUR ABSTRACT

The European Commission is writing new State Aid rules for energy. These rules are really important for the sector – they decide if and how national and regional governments can fund renewable energy projects.

The new draft rules are a big improvement on the old rules. They are much simpler, so renewable projects are easier to fund than other sectors.

Most importantly the % ‘thresholds’ on public funding are removed. Now governments can provide as much public funding as is needed to close a project’s ‘funding gap’. It will be much simpler to properly fund demo projects, and to combine different sources of public funds. So this is a big win. In addition, national governments can still allocate revenue support to individual technologies – so ocean energy does not need to compete directly against more established mature tech.

Transforming the energy sector requires a shift towards renewable energy sources. The world’s oceans are a source of abundant renewable energy, which can be tapped through offshore wind (with fixed and floating foundations, or airborne), floating solar photovoltaics (PV) and other emerging ocean energy technologies.

The G20 Italian presidency of 2021, acknowledging the importance of offshore renewables in the energy transition, commissioned IRENA to analyse and develop a proposed action agenda to foster offshore renewables deployment globally. Offshore renewables include offshore wind, ocean wave, tidal, thermal and salinity gradient technologies and floating solar PV.

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