Periscope Partner kicks off SEA Wave project
A European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) project has been launched to address long-term environmental concerns around the development of emerging wave energy technologies.
The 36-month SEA Wave (Strategic Environmental Assessment of Wave energy technologies) project will provide a deeper understanding about the response of host environments to the presence of wave energy converters (WECs).
Led by the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), SEA Wave aims to undertake one of the first targeted multi-WEC ecological sampling campaigns adopting a rigorous experimental approach to address some of the remaining uncertainties that exist for WECs in offshore environments. The findings should provide the evidence-base required for regulatory bodies to adopt a risk-based consenting process and support developers secure future multi-device consents.
SEA Wave will build on the bespoke environmental research campaigns undertaken in the Horizon 2020 Clean Energy from Ocean Waves (CEFOW) project on Wello Oy’s Penguin WEC, and incorporate future environmental monitoring campaigns on WECs demonstrated by CorPower Ocean, Laminaria and Ocean Energy over the coming three years.
Gaining an understanding of the potential positive and negative environmental effects associated with deploying and operating marine energy technologies is of key importance for this emerging industry.
Image: SEA Wave consortium come together for project launch (© EMEC)