Ocean energy companies face many shared challenges: Building machinery that can withstand decades of pummeling from moving saltwater; designing adaptive tech for a resource that is often calm, but can be wild; pulling power from the ocean without hurting the ecosystem. The promise of ocean energy is well worth it, but overcoming the challenges will require a lot of good minds working together. Innovation is faster when we collaborate from different angles and perspectives. That’s why the Ocean Energy Scale-up Alliance (OESA) is so exciting.
OESA is a Pilot Accelerator Program for ocean energy technologies. It was launched in 2019 to enable various ocean energy companies to work together to propel promising ocean energy technologies toward commercialization. Led by the Dutch Marine Energy Centre (DMEC), the transnational partnership combines expertise from six European countries from the North Sea Region. Its first program has a €6.2 million budget and is supported through €3.1 million in European Regional Development Funds through Interreg.
Designing and deploying utility-scale ocean energy could be a game-changer for renewables. By creating an international effort, and exchanging expertise and experience in one European program, OESA hopes to reduce the costs of developing energy technology pilots, accelerating their deployment, and making renewable power more affordable and accessible around the world.
The challenge of ocean energy
As noted by Simon Stark, OESA’s project manager: “Putting something under water is like putting something into space…. Unlike other accelerators, we don’t just have to deal with innovation and the creative process. We’re dealing with very hard basic engineering and system engineering, and developers having to learn the hard way.”
“OESA is an accelerator for a whole new vertical in renewables,” said Marcelle Askew, VP of Projects for Seabased, which is one of four technology developers benefiting from the OESA’s grant. “These projects have never been done before; there’s no supply chain with parts you can just pull off the shelf.”
Askew noted that other technology accelerators don’t quite meet the needs of marine energy technology developers. “We’re trying to develop an industry, not an app. We’ve got to manufacture and certify heavy equipment that you can only validate in the harsh ocean environment it will operate in. We need to find cost-effective ways to test and optimize before putting devices in the ocean.”
She also pointed out the different timelines to market. While many tech startups can go from concept to commercial roll-out in a few months, utility scale power parks take years. “So, I think it’s fantastic that we get to work with some of the leading organizations in the industry and share our knowledge and experience,” she said. “It’s enabling us to more quickly march toward certification and industrial ramp-up.”
Uniting ideas, money, and policy
Now almost halfway through its first three-year program, OESA aspires to:
· Successfully accelerate four technologies to achieve large scale deployments
· Combine services of project partners to increase value
· Influence important stakeholders from Offshore, Investment and policy makers
Twelve organizations are combining their expertise in offshore engineering, ocean energy testing, technology development, and market development. Four tech developers, including Seabased, are charged with making sure the program offer is tailored to the most urgent needs of the industry. The eight service partners are combining their expertise to offer a portfolio that covers both technological as well as commercial services. This will not only lead to the immediate acceleration of pilot development, but also ensure the sustainable growth of technology companies.
This project, the first to build an alliance between the Nordics and North-West Europe, brings stakeholders from the offshore industry, investment business, and policy makers together into one platform that aims to demonstrate ocean energy’s potential and hopefully secure support for future deployments.
“It’s not just about taking one pilot, one technology to the water,” said Stark. “We’re focused much more on trying to tackle similar problems across different developers at the same time, to streamline the process.”
Seabased in OESA
With support from OESA, Seabased is working with EMEC on the design of a testing program which will move us toward certification. We’re also working with ORE Catapult on a unique, wave-to-grid, simulation software tool that will show us how to glean the most energy from all the different wave environments we hope to work in around the world. We are also working with Uppsala University on test planning and data analysis.
“These partnerships, collaborations, and relationships built across the industry are helping ocean energy take its place among renewables as an important natural resource that can help transform the energy profile of coastal communities,” said Askew.
OESA, Stark said, is about looking at ocean energy holistically. And that’s how a nascent industry is going to be able to quickly join other renewables in tackling CO2 and climate change.
Europe leads the world in ocean energy development and the North Sea region is a leader in the sector within Europe. OESA’s first program includes eight service providers:
Dutch Marine Energy Center (DMEC)
Danish Wave Energy Center (DanWEC)
European Marine Energy Center (EMEC)
Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult (OREC)
The four technology developers are