OES Annual Report 2019

Ocean Energy Systems (OES) Annual Report 2019 presents the progress made in the ocean energy sector in OES member countries. Last year, several measures in different countries worldwide were taken to support the industrialisation of the sector.

In Europe, three new Horizon 2020 projects were launched, – LiftWEC, Element and NEMMO – each focusing on different areas of improvement for wave or tidal stream energy devices. These projects contribute to achieving the EU’s Strategic Energy Technology Plan targets of 15-10 ct€/kWh by 2025-2030 for tidal and 15-10 ct€/kWh by 2030-2035 for wave – which according to a new cost reduction study presented in the report are feasible provided that appropriate support for R&D and pilot projects is available.

In Canada, the Marine Renewable Energy Act was amended to extend feed-in-tariffs and Power Purchase Agreements for tidal energy developers working in FORCE, the research facility for tidal stream technology. The US launched a new R&D initiative “Powering the Blue Economy” that aims at relieving power constraints in emerging coastal and maritime markets by advancing ocean energy technologies.

Asia has made progress as well, India making tidal, wave and OTEC technologies eligible for Renewable Purchase Obligations, and China providing a temporary feed-in tariff of 0.33 €/kWh for tidal current technology.

All these measures are a continuation of efforts made during the past years and the results are becoming evident: according to the report, the cumulative energy produced from wave and tidal stream energy has increased from less than 5 GWh in 2009 to 45 GWh in 2019. This tenfold increase sets the sector on a promising path to the next decade.