The recent experience with ocean wave energy have revealed issues with reliability of technical components, survivability, high development costs and risks, long time to market, as well as industrial scalability of proposed and tested technologies. However the potential of wave energy is vast, and also positive conclusions have been drawn, in particular that wave energy is generally technically feasible. Having substantial insight into successes and drawbacks in past developments and existing concepts, the promoters have identified ‘breakthrough features’ that address the above mentioned obstacles, i.e. components, systems and processes, as well as the respective IP. These breakthroughs are applied to two wave concepts, the OWC and the Symphony, under development by members of the consortium. The following main avenues have been identified: 1. Survivability breakthrough via device submergence under storm conditions; 2. O&M (operation and maintenance) breakthrough via continuous submergence and adaption of components and strategies; 3. PTO breakthrough via dielectric membrane alternatives to the “classical” electro-mechanical power take-off equipment; 4. Array breakthrough via sharing of mooring and electrical connections between nearby devices, as well as integral approach to device interaction and compact aggregates; WETFEET addressees Low-carbon Energies specific challenges by targeting a set of breakthroughs for wave energy technology, an infant clean energy technology with vast potential. The breakthrough features of WETFEET are developed and tested on the platform of two specific converter types (OWC and Symphony) with near-term commercial interest, and a large part of the results can make a general contribution to the sector, being implemented in other technologies.

FLOATFARM aims to significantly advance the maturity and competitiveness of floating offshore wind (FOW) technology by increasing energy production, achieving significant cost reductions within the design and implementation phases, improving offshore wind value chain and supporting EU companies in this growing sector. Ultimately, FLOATFARM aims to decrease negative environmental impacts on marine life and to enhance the public acceptability of FOW, thereby accelerating the EU energy transition. To this end, a number of critical technologies have been identified as key catalysts. They apply to different conceptual scales, from individual floating offshore wind turbine level (Action 1) to farm level (Action 2) and environmental and socio-economic perspectives (Action 3). Innovations will be introduced into: 1) ROTOR TECHNOLOGY, where innovative rotor designs for improved energy capture will be explored in a co-design approach with innovative control techniques, improved floaters, and a groundbreaking generator concept; 2) MOORING AND ANCHORING, where shared mooring and innovative dynamic cabling will be investigated; 3) WIND FARM CONTROL, where novel control strategies will be exploited to increase the farm power density, and 4) ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT MITIGATION, where marine noise emissions and impacts on marine species of FOW farms will be addressed, innovative artificial reefs will be pioneered and social acceptance will be studied. To ensure that effective solutions are pursued and TRL5 can be achieved, FLOATFARM adopts a holistic approach that combines innovative designs, experimental demonstration at laboratory scale, modelling with a suite of beyond state-of-the-art numerical tools, and demonstration in a unique open-sea laboratory, where a new 1:7 scale 15MW FOWT will be tested in combination with novel floaters, moorings and controls, ensuring systematic assessment and validation that are thus far unprecedented in FOWT research.

This proposal is for the development of a novel wave energy converter whose primary coupling with the waves is through hydrodynamic lift forces. The objective is to determine the potential of this concept to produce renewable energy at a commercially competitive price whilst ensuring a minimal environmental/social impact. This will be achieved by a combination of numerical/physical modelling and desk-based studies of the structural design, the operational & maintenance requirements and the environmental/social impacts of the technology. The numerical/physical modelling will demonstrate the concept’s performance, thereby taking the concept to TRL4, whilst the desk-based studies will allow the socially-acceptable commercial potential to be determined. Wave energy is one of the few untapped sources of renewable energy that could make a significant contribution to the future energy system. However, a study of the literature and a patent search indicates that of the hundreds of concepts that have been developed only four couple to the waves through lift forces, whilst the rest couple through diffraction or buoyancy forces. However, coupling through lift forces has the significant advantage of reducing extreme loads (by reducing the circulation like a wind turbine) which facilitates survivability, and produces unidirectional rotation, which simplifies power extraction. Unfortunately, none of the current lift-based ave energy concepts have a high efficiency in all sea-states due to difficulties in maintaining a good lift-to-drag ratio. The novel ideas in this proposal are designed to achieve this and thus enable the commercial development of wave energy and the acceleration of clean energy solutions.

Solar photovoltaic (PV) has become the world’s fastest-growing energy technology, with an annual global market surpassing for the first time in 2018 the 100 Gigawatt (GW) level and cumulative capacity of 583.5 GW in 2019. However, in order to produce large amounts of energy and to avoid increased energy transmission costs, solar power plants must be located close to the demand centres. Yet, it is a problem to require vast surfaces of land near densely populated areas where the power is consumed. This is specially a problem in Europe, which by far has the smallest average size of a solar PV plant in the world. Floating PV (FPV) plants have opened up new opportunities for facing these land restrictions. Nevertheless, this market is currently concentrated in reservoirs and lakes. Offshore and near-shore FPV systems are still in a nascent stage due to additional challenges faced by non-sheltered sea conditions: waves and winds are stronger, implying that mooring, anchoring and dynamic load capacity becomes even more critical due to the increased frequency of high wave- and wind-loads. The BOOST will address these challenges with a new FPV system partly inspired by the floating and mooring technology that has been used over 20 years in rough Norwegian waters by the fish farming industry, combined with a disruptive and patented floating hydro-elastic membrane (<1mm thickness). The hydro-elastic membrane is attached to an outer perimeter of buoyant tubing so that the floater is not dragged under by the mooring, even in strong currents, winds and waves, similar to the effect of oil on troubled water. The validation of this technology in non-sheltered sea waters lead consortium expects to reach an installed capacity of 1,750 MW for the 5 years (6.2% of the SAM), contributing to avoid CO2 emission of 4,120 kt (but each PV plant will last for at least 25 years, so the long-term impact is 5 times larger). It will generate to the consortium accumulated profits above €94m.

WEDUSEA led by Irish Wave Energy Developer, Ocean Energy, will demonstrate a grid connected 1MW OE35 floating wave energy converter (known as the OE Buoy) at the European Marine Energy Test Site (EMEC) in Orkney, Scotland. This rigorous technical and environmental demonstration will happen over a 2 year period in Atlantic wave conditions with outcomes directly impacting policy, technical standards, public perception and investor confidence. The project will demonstrate that the technology is on a cost reduction trajectory in line with the EU SET Plan targets and will be a stepping stone to larger commercial array scale up and further industrialisation. The action will integrate sub components such as moorings and PTOs - improving efficiency, reliability, scalability, sustainability and circularity of the technology. The combined actions of the work programme are expected to reduce the LCOE for the technology from €361/MWh to €245/MWh, a 32% reduction. For a 20MW array the LCOE would reduce from €185/MWh to €127/MWh. The project has 3 clear phases, phase 1 the initial design phase leading into a Go/No Go, phase 2 Demonstration in which it is expected that the baseline device will generate in excess of 1,650 MWh over the deployment and Phase 3 Commercialisation and Dissemination which sees the capitalisation and exploitation of the results. Ocean Energy and other consortium companies will actively exploit the results through new innovations, products and services. The results will be disseminated to feed both environmental databases and IEC electrotechnical standards. This action will take wave energy beyond the state of the art, building on the partners experience in prior EU projects enabling arrays of reliable devices to achieve the 1GW target set out in the 2030 DG-ENER Offshore Renewable Energy Strategy. Planned engagement will create more public perception, empower and inform policy makers and de-risk larger scale investments to meet the 2050 targets.