€1M project to showcase the economic value of ocean energy in Europe

EVOLVE will examine the overall market value of the inclusion of ocean energy in European energy systems.  The project aims to produce quantifiable outputs to illustrate the benefits associated with integrating ocean energy in low carbon energy systems across the regions of north west Europe.

Ocean energy is an increasingly valuable resource within renewable energy development. As Europe looks to renewable technology as part of a green post-COVID recovery and achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, the ability to demonstrate the value of ocean energy becomes more crucial.  The outcome of EVOLVE has the potential to boost not just the ocean energy industry, but also associated industries within the Blue Economy. 

The team of partners from across Europe include:

• Aquatera which functions as the Project Manager of the project and brings more than 20 years of experience of working with renewable energy and has worked on over 300 marine energy studies and will applying their unique RADMAPP model to the project;
• WavEC provides professional engineering services, and research, development, and innovation support in the marine renewable energy sector;
• RISE and the University of Edinburgh have world class research experience in energy systems modelling; and
• Orbital Marine Power and CorPower Ocean bring tidal and wave technology demonstration experience respectively.

Continued engagement throughout the project will ensure that the results produced are relevant and useful to a wide range of stakeholders including technology and project developers, regulators, policy makers, electricity system operators and project investors.

Gareth Davies, Managing Director at Aquatera has said “We are delighted to be participating in this project which will for the first time link the distribution of ocean energy resources and energy markets on a place, time and value basis. The team we have put together includes some of the most experienced participants in the ocean energy sector and has the capacity to deliver a ground-breaking analysis framework that will clearly signal the best pathways and locations for ocean energy in the future.”

Head of low carbon transition at Scottish Enterprise Andy McDonald said: “Scotland has an ambitious target to be a net zero nation by 2045 and by capitalising on our manufacturing strengths and natural tidal assets as well as economic opportunities around climate change we will build a sustainable blue and green economy that encourages international investment.

“I look forward to seeing the EVOLVE project take shape and delve deeper into the economic growth potential of ocean energy and its integration into energy systems to build on previous Oceanera-net initiatives. Aquatera’s research expertise, alongside academic knowhow from Edinburgh University and Orbital Marine’s tidal technology knowledge will really come together on this project providing an opportunity for Scotland to lead from the front with EU partners and showcase energy transition in action.”

Matthijs Soede (European Commision) said: “The final aim of each developer is to supply clean electricity to the energy system, but it will be important to show decision makers in Europe the added value of ocean energy. I am very happy to see that EVOLVE will do research on this and I am sure that the research will profit from the collaboration between the different European partners and that results will find more easy a way to the right decision makers in Europe.”

The project is expected to have a significant impact on the integration of ocean energy in European energy systems and through this, support Europe’s green transition while strengthening European cooperation and the Blue Economy.