Context
The Atlantic seaboard offers a vast marine renewable energy (MRE) resource which is still far from being exploited. These resources include offshore wind, wave and tidal energy. This industrial activity holds considerable potential for enhancing the diversity of energy sources, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and stimulating and diversifying the economies of coastal communities.
Ocean energy is one of the pillars of the EU’s Blue Growth Strategy because of its ability to provide clean, predictable, indigenous and reliable energy and to contribute to the EU’s objective of reaching a share of renewables of at least 32% of the EU’s gross final consumption by 2030.
The nascent status of the Marine Renewables sector, and Wave Energy (WE) in particular, yields many unknowns about its potential environmental pressures and impacts, some of them still far from being completely understood.
The complexity of administrative licensing procedures for marine renewables due to the absence of specific regulations, the large variety and number of authorities involved and the need to carry out Marine Spatial Planning for the selection of the best locations are other major obstacles or non-technological barriers to the future development of the sector.
Finally, there is also a need to provide more information to the sector, not only to regulators, developers and other stakeholders, but also to society at large in order to improve its perception and understanding of marine renewable energies on a technical, environmental, etc. level, and thus avoid possible opposition to future developments at the local level.
Objectives
The main objective of the project is to overcome these non-technological barriers by giving continuity to the work being developed in the framework of the WESE project through the following specific objectives:
- Development of an Environmental Research Demonstration Strategy based on the collection, processing, modelling, analysis and sharing of environmental data collected in WE sites from different European countries where wave energy converters are currently operating (Mutriku power plant and BIMEP in Spain, Aguçadoura in Portugal and SEMREV in France). The SafeWAVE project aims to improve the understanding of the negative, positive and non-significant effects of wave energy projects and thus reduce the uncertainty associated with these environmental impacts.
- Development of a planning and administrative authorisation strategy that builds on the Marine Spatial Planning guidelines and tools developed in Spain and Portugal in the framework of the WESE project and implements similar guidelines and tools for Ireland and France, thus completing a support to ocean energy developers and public authorities for most of the EU countries in the Atlantic Arc.
- Development of a Public Education and Engagement strategy to work collaboratively with coastal communities in France, Ireland, Portugal and Spain, to co-develop and demonstrate a framework for education and public engagement (EPE) of MRE enhancing ocean literacy and improving the quality of public debates.
Key Results
This project builds on the WESE project by expanding knowledge on the monitoring and modelling of the potential environmental effects of wave energy conversion devices at different sites. In addition to publishing reports detailing the project’s main results, the MARENDATA platform continues to be updated and enriched with new data.
Furthermore, suitable areas for the development of wave energy projects have been identified and characterised within the framework of Maritime Spatial Planning in the European Atlantic region (Spain, Portugal, France, and Ireland). Suitability maps have been produced for each country. The results show that there is sufficient space in the European Atlantic region to develop new wave energy farms to meet predefined targets and that, if properly and cautiously planned, such developments would meet industrial requirements and be located in areas with lower environmental risks and limited or no conflicts with other activities. In addition, a review of risk-based permitting approaches and their potential adaptation has been carried out to help simplify administrative procedures. This work provides guidance for ocean energy developers and public authorities responsible for authorising ocean energy projects in France and Ireland, updating the methodology previously developed under the WESE project.
Finally, an education and public engagement strategy has been developed to support collaborative work with coastal communities in France, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain. This strategy aims to co-develop and demonstrate a framework for education and public engagement on marine renewable energies, improving ocean literacy and the quality of public debate.
Website
https://www.safewave-project.eu/
Participants
AZTI (Project Coordinator, ES), Centro De Energia Offshore Associacao (PT), Biscay Marine Energy Platform SA (ES), Asociación Centro Tecnologico Naval y del Mar (ES), Hidromod Modelacao em Engenharia LDA (PT), University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (IE), Ecole Centrale de Nantes (FR), RTSYS (FR), CORPOWER OCEAN AB (SE), Laminaria nv (BE), GEPS TECHNO (FR)
Funding
European Commission, EASME – Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
