The Government of Scotland and the Government of the Basque Autonomous Community have signed an agreement called EuropeWave which over five years aims to use a pre-commercial procurement process to identify and finance the most promising wave energy capturing systems from developers from all over Europe.
The energy capturing systems will be evaluated on strict technical and economic performance metrics, and the best will be put to the test on open Basque and Scottish waters at the end of the program.
This project is being run by the Basque Energy Agency (Ente Vasco de Energía) (EVE) and Wave Energy Scotland (WES) and will be backed by €11.35 million (£10M) from the European Commission via its Horizon 2020 program. The EVE will also contribute €7.5 million (£6.6M), and the WES €3.7 million (£3.3M). Finally, Ocean Energy Europe, the largest oceanic energy professional network int he world, will also participate.
The head of the European Commission research program, Matthijs, Soede, has confirmed, “With EuropeWave we pool public resources for research and demonstration from national and EU level. By effective use of these resources, we hope that this will create more impact for the wave energy sector.”
Our regular readers will remember our entry about Mutriku in our “Viewpoints” section, discussing the wave power plant that can be found at the port in this small Gipuzkoan town. As we stated when the plant began operating, it’s a leader in the field of wave power, and makes a curious sound, which you can hear in the video.
We’ll leave you with the information written by Calum MacLeod and published in the Scottish Inverness Courier, as well as the reports found on the specialist sites Renews and Ocean Energy Europe.
Inverness Courier – 5/12/2020 – Scotland
Scottish-Basque connection to drive marine power innovation
Marine energy pioneers from Scotland and the Basque Country have launched a new programme to channel €20 million to the most promising wave energy concepts across Europe. Wave Energy Scotland (WES), a subsidiary of Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and fully funded by the Scottish Government, is a lead partner in new five year collaboration EuropeWave, which was launched at the virtual Ocean Energy Europe Conference & Exhibition 2020 (OEE2020).
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Renews – 4/12/2020 – Gran Bretaña
Scotland and Basque region partner on wave funding
The Basque region of Spain and Scotland are collaborating on a five-year project called EuropeWave to provide €20m to for wave energy concepts. The initiative is match-funded by the European Commission via its Horizon 2020 programme, and Ocean Energy Europe are also project partners.
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Ocean Energy Europe – 4/12/2020 – Europa
Basque Country and Scotland team up to boost wave energy with EuropeWave project
The Basque Country and Scotland used the final day of the annual Ocean Energy Europe Conference & Exhibition to announce ‘EuropeWave’ – a new five-year collaborative programme that will channel €20m to the most promising wave energy concepts. The initiative is match-funded by the European Commission via its Horizon 2020 programme, and Ocean Energy Europe are on board as project partners.
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Last Updated on Jan 31, 2021 by About Basque Country
