WES conference notes - 2017

Here’s a list of the most interesting information to come out of the WES conference last week.

WES knowledge library

Information from the WES programme is now more widely available. You need to sign up for the knowledge library, but it’s well worth the pain of yet another password. It’s got all the knowledge capture reports from the companies that had been active in Scotland before the market collapse, an O&M spreadsheet, EMEC's 'Lessons Learnt from Real Sea Deployment', reports on conferences and metrics etc.

H2020 calls

LC-SC3-RES-1-2019: Developing the next generation of renewable energy technologies
LC-SC3-RES-11-2018: Developing solutions to reduce the cost and increase performance of renewable technologies
LC-SC3-RES-13-2018: Demonstrate solutions that significantly reduce the cost of renewable power generation
LC-SC3-RES-14-2019: Optimising manufacturing and system operation

There is also a call that is based on WES’s pre-commercial procurement model:
LC-SC3-JA-3-2019: European Pre-Commercial Procurement Programme for Wave Energy Research &Development

OCEANERA-NET conference 30-31 January 2018, Edinburgh

This free conference concludes the OCEANERA-NET programme. They will have break-out groups based on audience suggested topics.

ICOE 2018

Normandy: Deadline for abstracts 15 December 2015.

WES landscaping calls

WES has put out calls for two more landscaping studies: one on the cost reductions due to very large devices, and another on alternative generating technologies. Applications are due on the 9 January 2018.

Knowledge Exchange Network

The Energy Technology Partnership is offering support for small industry/academia projects (<£10k). The support is for 70% of the project, but the industrial partner can contribute in kind. Norman Morrison supports projects on wave energy, and he can help businesses find the right academic partners.

SuperGen

SuperGen Marine is becoming SuperGen ORE. It will now cover offshore wind, tidal and wave. However, it should be noted that it is funded by the UK rather than Scotland, and that the current funding strategy is not supportive of wave energy.

Scottish Government Strategy

Sue Cairns from the Scottish Government spoke about the new whole-system approach to energy policy. They will pay attention to the decarbonisation of heat and transport – which suggests the need for more renewable electricity to support the phasing out of petrol and diesel vans in 2032. They are also proposing to spend £50b on energy efficiency and are considering publically owned energy companies. She suggested that differential funding was required for wave energy, and in response to a question about whether the feed-in tariff was dead, she said that the conversation was not dead. She mentioned that they had run scenarios using the ‘Times’ software model, and that lowest cost trajectory contained no marine energy. However, the Scottish government realises that the model does not account for economic opportunities and inclusive growth. These are the reasons the Scottish Government is continuing to support wave energy.




Image credit:

Quaker the Duck (Tom and Jerry screenshot): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Quacker_The_Duck.JPG