Blue-GIFT backs three more marine renewable energy technologies

The Interreg Atlantic Area funded Blue-GIFT programme has awarded recommendations for support to three marine renewable energy projects under its third and final call to test and validate technologies in real sea environments.

Two technology developers were recommended for support to access the SEENEOH test site, these include French tidal energy developer EEL Energy, whose design is inspired by bio-mimicry, and Dutch tidal energy company Hydrokinetic Power Generation Systems (HPGS), who will trial their vertical axis tidal turbines at the site. The third technology developer recommended for support is RW Power AS, a Norwegian company who will test their floating offshore wind powered desalination pump at the PLOCAN test site. This will be their second time accessing the site, their previous project tested a wave powered desalination pump.

The successful applicants represent a final opportunity for Blue-GIFT to support trial and demonstration of marine renewable energy devices in the remaining months of the project. We believe that these three developers are ready to contribute to the project’s goal of supporting eight technology deployments over the course of the project lifetime, and in turn help move marine renewable energy technology closer to commercialisation.  

Photo credits: EEL Energy

Marlene Kiersnowski, SEENEOH, said:

“We are particularly pleased to be able to support the EEL and HPGS trials on SEENEOH. Blue-GIFT thus makes it possible to give an ultimate but indispensable boost to the realisation of projects that have been worked on for a long time.”

Nadia Achargui García, PLOCAN, stated:

“PLOCAN is proud to contribute to the development of marine renewable energies through initiatives like the Blue-GIFT project in the Atlantic Area. We are glad to provide RW Power with an opportunity to demonstrate their new technology in real sea conditions and support them in their way to commercialization.”

Blue-GIFT is an €2.5M project which helps to bring marine renewable energy technologies to market by offering free access to a world-leading network of test centres: BiMEP (Basque Country, Spain), PLOCAN (Canary Islands, Spain), SEENEOH (Bordeaux, France) and WavEC (Aguçadoura, Portugal).

This is the final call for Blue-GIFT. To date, the Blue-GIFT project has supported four companies to deploy their devices in real sea conditions at test sites in the Atlantic Area, including: Arrecife, Design Pro Renewables, RW Power, and Wavepiston. There are a number of other technology developers due to deploy during this year, including EnerOcean, X1 Wind, Wello, Corpower and Tension Tech. They have all been supported through the project. 

Blue-GIFT test centres

• BiMEP (wave and floating wind) in the Basque Country, Spain;
• PLOCAN (wave and floating wind) in Gran Canaria, Spain;
• SEENEOH (tidal) in Bordeaux, France;
• WavEC (wave and floating wind test centre) in Aguçadoura, Portugal;
• EMEC (wave and tidal) in Orkney, UK (Blue-GIFT lead partner);
• SmartBay Test Site (wave and floating wind) from Galway, Ireland (BlueWise Marine Project Partner);
• Centrale Nantes / SEM-REV (wave and floating wind) in Nantes, France.