The successful candidate will join the ‘Marine Energy Council’ (MEC) in London, a national-level representation of the UK ocean energy sector (‘the sector’). The MEC has so far operated as a network of companies and people aiming at further developing ocean energy in the UK and this position will help structure its action and strengthen its visibility.

The candidate’s main objective will be to raise the profile of the sector and ensure that it receives the support necessary to further develop and expand. This requires effective communication of the sector’s potential, its wider contribution to society, and its policy and funding needs. Messages should be delivered to those at both functionary and political levels within the UK government, who can help deliver on these needs.

He/she is responsible for the definition and implementation of advocacy strategy, in close cooperation with the UK Marine Energy Council and Ocean Energy Europe. He/she will build and maintain a close relationship with sectoral players, and will consult closely when devising messaging and policy positions.

The successful candidate will be the national-level representative of the Dutch marine energy sector (‘the sector’). His / her aim is to raise the profile of the sector and ensure that it receives the support necessary to further develop and expand.

This requires effective communication of the sector’s potential, its wider contribution to society, and its policy and funding needs. Messages should be delivered to those at both functional and political levels within the Dutch government, who can help deliver on these needs.

He / she is responsible for the definition and implementation of advocacy strategy, in close cooperation with Ocean Energy Europe (OEE) and the sector. He / she will build and maintain a close relationship with sectoral players, and will consult closely when devising messaging and policy positions.

The EIB’s aspiration to “stop lending to fossil-fuel energy projects by the end of 2020” and focus on the “energy efficiency first principle”, renewable energy and the necessity to support a “just transition” for workers in high-carbon sectors, has sent an important signal to financial markets and institutions across the globe.

We hope and expect that the EIB will deliver on its plans and swiftly confirm this level of ambition in its policy, in support of the goal of climate neutrality as the target for all future investment decisions of the EIB.

See the full letter

Research and Innovation funding is crucial to deliver the EU’s energy and climate objectives. To enable researchers, innovators and entrepreneurs generate fresh ideas, develop breakthrough technologies and create new business models, we are calling upon the European Union to increase R&I funding in the Horizon Europe budget to at least €120 billion, and to ensure a significant share of the budget is directed toward putting Europe on track to reach the Paris Agreement goals.

To reap the benefits of years of R&D and boost European companies exports, we also call upon the European Commission to develop lab-to-market programmes that enable innovative technologies to reach the commercial stage.

See the full letter

More ambition and better planning to stay world leader in Renewables

Renewable energy associations’ joint messages on the draft National Energy and Climate Plans

The Clean Energy Package sets a renewable energy target of at least 32% by 2030. For investors, this target is the minimum to keep momentum going in the fast-growing sector that is the renewable energy industry. Meeting this target is necessary for Europe to reap the economic benefits resulting from a clean and efficient energy system by 2050. This will strengthen European competitiveness at the global level boosting domestic jobs and growth.

For the EU to be world leader in renewables and leading force on climate action, European and national policies must help increasing renewable energy shares in the final energy demand: in electricity, heating & cooling and transport. This is of utmost importance to decarbonize the EU economy. A higher share of renewable energy in all final energy uses will create more jobs, push technological innovation, boost infrastructure development at the local, regional and national levels.

The recently adopted Clean Energy Package contains concrete provisions to ensure the 2030 decarbonisation objectives are collectively met. Now the National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) submitted by the EU Members States are the key instrument to turn the provisions of the Package into reality. These Plans need to outline the renewable energy deployments over the next decade, being consistent with the EU-wide 32% target and the long-term decarbonization objectives set forth by the Paris Agreement. The renewable energy industry considers that the draft NECPs submitted so far to the European Commission are lacking substantial details:

• Ambition. The NECPs’ level of ambition must be significantly increased to reach the 2030 targets and maintain the competitiveness of the EU renewable energy industry
• Robustness, clarity, visibility. The plans need to clearly translate the provisions of the Clean Energy Package into actionable and forward-looking national policies. Member States should clearly define how they plan to comply with the requirements of provisions such as the sectorial objective on renewable heating and cooling, enabling energy communities, or aligning their electricity market.
• The draft NECPs’ should be aligned with other relevant European policies, such as the innovation policy and the SET Plan targets.

The renewable energy industry is a key enabler of growth in Europe. Our industry now urges the European Union to call for more robustness and ambition in the NECPs, in order to enable the EU to remain on track to meet its renewable energy target to 2030.

All signatories of this letter remain at full disposal to provide more information where needed and hope this call for action will be taken into account.

Download the Joint Letter

In 2018, European tidal stream installations reached 26.8MW, and wave energy installations 11.3MW. Europe continues to lead the world in ocean energy deployments, and last year its tidal projects produced record volumes of electricity, according to yearly statistics published by Ocean Energy Europe.

But other parts of the world, especially Canada and China, are knocking on the door. Tidal power installations outside Europe jumped from zero in 2015 to a total of 6.7MW between 2016 and 2018. Europe still dominates global wave energy installations, but the US is becoming a strong contender with significant financial incentives and plans for pilot sites.

To stay out in front and get projects over the line, the European sector needs revenue support at national level. Ocean Energy Europe’s CEO, Rémi Gruet, emphasised the importance of such incentives. “The power, and learnings, produced by ocean energy technologies in recent years clearly show that it is possible to generate large quantities of electricity from the sea. What we now need to reach industrialisation is revenue support – just like other renewables, and indeed fossil fuels, have also received.”

Tidal stream technology is now proving itself as a reliable and predictable source of energy. After a decade of steadily increasing generation, power production has shifted up a gear in the past two years. Since 2013, 34 gigawatt-hours of electricity has been produced by tidal stream in Europe – enough to power more than 9,000 homes over the same period. The latest wave energy projects to hit the water are proving that these devices are surviving well in harsh conditions, paving the way for larger, more powerful versions in 2019.

The statistics were compiled by Ocean Energy Europe using data gathered from the ocean energy industry.

Dedicated revenue support at national level is essential to attract investment for ocean energy farms, according to a new report from sectoral advisory body ETIP Ocean. The report ‘Powering Homes Today, Powering Nations Tomorrow’ analyses the challenges faced by the sector on the route to industrial roll-out and proposes four actions to overcome them. Alongside revenue support, a model for ‘blended’ public finance will allow the next round of ocean energy projects to reach financial close.

The report also highlights ocean energy’s recent successes, with record volumes of power being supplied to the grid by tidal stream technology, and several promising scale and full-sized wave devices going into the water. It reiterates ocean energy’s potential of providing 10% of Europe’s current electricity consumption by 2050.

Ocean Energy Europe’s Policy Director, Donagh Cagney said: “The technological progress made by ocean energy has been a true European success story, with project teams from across Europe collaborating within EU programmes such as Horizon 2020 and Interreg. To unlock available EU support and private investment, we now call upon national governments to play their part and earmark revenue support specifically for ocean energy.”

12 April 2019. Ocean Energy Europe (OEE) has elected Dr. Jochen Weilepp, representing Sustainable Marine Energy, as co-President of the association. Dr. Weilepp will join Simon De Pietro of DP Energy, who has been OEE co-President since 2016.

Dr. Weilepp has been a valuable member of the OEE board for almost a decade and has been active in the ocean energy sector for 15 years. He currently represents tidal turbine technology developers Sustainable Marine Energy (SME) and Schottel Hydro, and advises wave developer Nemos.

Dr Weilepp is also Professor for Energy Management at the University of Applied Sciences Biberach, Germany, and has extensive experience with a range of ocean energy technologies. From 2005 until 2012, as CEO of Voith Hydro Ocean Current Technologies, he oversaw projects in wave, tidal and salinity gradient.

Dr. Weilepp commented:

 “It is a great honour to be elected OEE co-President at this crucial stage for the sector. Over the past 15 years, I have seen ocean energy technologies go from strength to strength, with numerous projects now producing clean, predictable electricity across Europe. I am looking forward to working with the OEE team as they engage with both national governments and the incoming European Parliament and Commission.

 I believe that with Simon’s experience as a project developer and my own background working with device manufacturers, we are in a strong position to lead the sector forward to commercialisation.”

Simon de Pietro, Managing Director of DP Energy and OEE co-President added:

“I am delighted to share the OEE Presidency with Jochen, who has a wealth of experience in ocean energy. These are exciting times for the sector, and I am confident that together with the OEE board, we can steer the industry through this period where energy production is going up and costs are coming down.”

For more information, please contact:

Amy Parsons

Communications and Events Director, Ocean Energy Europe

a.parsons@oceanenergy.eu +32 2 400 1043

About Ocean Energy Europe

Ocean Energy Europe is the largest network of ocean energy professionals in the world. Over 120 organisations, including Europe’s leading utilities, industrialists and research institutes, trust Ocean Energy Europe to represent the interests of Europe’s ocean energy sector.

Ocean Energy Europe’s objective is to create a strong environment for the development of ocean energy, improve access to funding and enhance business opportunities for its members. To achieve this, it engages with the European Commission, Council, Parliament, European Investment Bank, and national ministries on all dossiers affecting the sector, such energy, climate, finance, grid and consenting.

http://oceanenergy.eu/

21 January 2019. The new Interreg NWE project Ocean DEMO has been officially launched today. It provides funding to developers of marine renewable technologies to test their products or services in real sea environments. Ocean DEMO specifically targets multi-machine ocean energy installations. This will allow developers to move closer to market by demonstrating their technologies at full commercial scale. Ocean DEMO will release a first call for applications this year and devices will be installed from 2020 to 2022.

The transition from single machine to pilot farm scale is critical for the future of the ocean energy sector. Scaling up to multi-device farms will improve the competitiveness of the technology by bringing down costs across the supply chain. This transition comes with higher capital requirements and investors require a proven business case before they get further involved.

Ocean DEMO will ease the transition towards pilot farms by providing free access to Europe’s world leading network of open sea test centres:

• EMEC – European Marine Energy Centre, UK – Project leader
• DMEC – Dutch Marine Energy Centre, Netherlands
• Centrale Nantes/SEM-REV, France
• SmartBay – Marine and Renewable Energy Test Site, Ireland

Ocean DEMO follows on from the highly successful FORESEA project, which provides free access to open sea test centres for single machine testing. FORESEA has helped prove the tremendous potential of ocean energy, with 19 technologies deployed and more to come this year. Examples like Orbital Marine Power, who generated over 3 GWh of electricity in a year, proved that the technology works and can be part of a renewable energy mix in Europe.

Industry group Ocean Energy Europe will channel the project’s achievements and learnings to its international network of ocean energy professionals, ensuring broad dissemination across the sector.

Oliver Wragg, Commercial Director at EMEC, said:
“We’re delighted to be able to continue the work we started with FORESEA. We were able to demonstrate a wide range of technologies throughout the ocean energy supply chain thanks to Interreg’s support and the efforts of all the project partners.

“With Ocean DEMO, we will be able to scale up technologies to pilot farm scale. This will reduce technical risks, minimise environmental impacts and improve the economic competitiveness of ocean energy production. We’re looking forward to collaborating with ocean energy innovators across Europe and help them get machines in the water.”

Rémi Gruet, CEO of Ocean Energy Europe, said:
“We are very happy about Interreg’s steady support for ocean energy development in Europe. The ocean energy industry can provide jobs to 400.000 Europeans as well as 10% of Europe’s electricity by 2050. Ocean DEMO will be another significant step towards those objectives. Multi-device demonstration will strengthen the technology’s business case and attract investors, which will in turn allow the industry to scale up and bring down costs.

“A revenue support system, feed-in tariff, Contract for Difference or similar, is the only thing we’re missing to unlock the full potential of ocean energy in Europe. It is now up to Member States to create the right conditions for this industry to thrive.”

For further information:
Victor Kempf, FORESEA Communications Manager
Ocean Energy Europe
v.kempf@oceanenergy.eu
+32 2400 1042

Lisa MacKenzie, Marketing & Communications Officer
EMEC
lisa.mackenzie@emec.org.uk
+44 1856 852207
 

About Ocean DEMO

Ocean DEMO will drive innovation across the ocean energy supply chain and scale technologies up to multi-machine readiness by providing free access to Europe’s world-leading network of test centres.

To boost market uptake and verify the potential of ocean energy to investors, Ocean DEMO will run a competitive voucher scheme supporting technology development through a combined transnational offering across NWE test infrastructures.

It is funded by the Interreg North West Europe programme, part of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
 

About FORESEA

The FORESEA project helps small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) test ocean energy technology in real sea conditions and prove power can be economically generated from the ocean, by providing free access to North-West Europe’s world-leading network of test centres.

It is funded by the Interreg North West Europe programme, part of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
www.foreseaproject.eu

With the upcoming decision on the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), the EU institutions will set a direction which will determine the evolution of EU investments and have a direct impact on our energy system for decades to come. Considering the EU commitment to the Paris Agreement towards carbon neutrality by 2050, the forthcoming European Regional and Development Fund (ERDF) and Cohesion Fund (CF) must play their parts in putting renewables (RES) at the centre of the EU energy system and must not include the possibility for subsidies to fossil fuels.

Download the Joint statement.