OES Annual Report 2020

The 2020 Annual Report from the IEA Technology Collaboration Programme on Ocean Energy Systems (OES) shows that successful deployments have taken place in all corners of the world from Australia, through Asia and Europe to North America. Some of these demonstration projects have been grid-connected reaffirming the potential role of ocean energy in the achievement of decarbonisation goals.

The 2020 Annual Report covers the key activities of the OES and gives an overview of ocean energy policies, R&D projects and technology progress around the globe.

Key actions include:

• The OES-Environmental Task involving fifteen nations led by the US Department of Energy and implemented by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has implemented several outreach actions to engage the ocean energy community, with particular emphasis on researchers, regulators, and developers.
• A new study ‘Ocean Energy in Islands and Remote Coastal Areas´ highlighted the benefits of ocean energy to facilitate the energy transition as well as sustainable development in small islands and remote coastal areas.
• Further attention has been dedicated to ‘international performance evaluation’ of ocean energy technologies with strong support from the European Commission, the US Department of Energy and from Wave Energy Scotland. This work is focused on the definition of a fully defined set of metrics and success thresholds for wave energy technologies in efforts to develop an internationally accepted approach.