Strategy and National Targets
During 2008, the Government appointed REN – Redes Energéticas Nacionais (National Energy Network) S.G.P.S., S.A. to create a company to manage the Wave Energy Pilot Zone. In 2010, the Government approved the minutes for the contract with REN – Resolution from the Council of Ministers no. 49/2010 (1 July), which led to its signature. A company named ENONDAS was created to manage the Pilot Zone. In 2011, the Government acknowledged the need to open ENONDAS capital to private initiatives.

Main Public Funding Mechanisms
There are two main public funding mechanisms: 

FAI - Innovation Support Fund (Fundo de Apoio à Inovação) intended primarily to finance the national scientific system in the field of innovation and technological development, primarily in the area of renewables, mainly wind power.

The Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) is the main Portuguese national agency responsible for continuously promoting the advancement of scientific and technological knowledge, exploring opportunities that become available in any scientific or technological domain, including marine energy.

Relevant Legislation and Regulation
Public discussion on the “Plano de Ordenamento do Espaço Marítimo - POEM” (http://poem.inag.pt/), the Portuguese Marine National Plan, was concluded. This plan aims to survey all the activities to be deployed in Portuguese waters, to order the uses and activities of the maritime space, to ensure the sustainable use of
resources and to set up the parameters of sustainable development for each activity in the maritime space. 

Government Funded R&D
The Government acknowledged the need to maintain a group on a national laboratory, Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia, IP (LNEG), performing research and development on ocean energy. The ocean energy group has been working on the improvement of its capability to suitably model the energy conversion chain (from waves to electrical energy). The group has been working on the performance improvement of point absorbers with hydraulic and pneumatic power take-off (PTO) equipment (selfrectifying air turbines), namely on what concerns the hydrodynamic performance as well as geometry optimization and PTO control. As a partner of the ORECCA project, LNEG has carried out the assessment of wind and wave resources for the offshore European Atlantic area.

The improvement of a Geographical Information System (GIS) database, developed at LNEG for site selection of wave energy farms, has continued to provide guidance for installation of wave energy devices in the country. Research has been going on at Instituto Superior Técnico, Technical University of Lisbon, on the hydrodynamics of wave energy converters of OWC type, involving numerical modelling and model testing.

Two groups have been developing two different types of floating OWC converters: (i) A buoy enclosing a U-shaped duct where a water column oscillates by action of the wave-induced buoy motions in heave, surge and pitch. (ii) An axi-symmetric spar-buoy device consisting of a buoy with a tail tube open at its bottom end, that oscillates essentially in heave. Both converters are equipped with self-rectifying air turbines. In addition, numerical modelling and optimization was performed on the IPS buoy wave energy converter, following work of previous years.

The work on OWCs at Instituto Superior Técnico has been complemented by the development of a new type of self-rectifying air turbine: the so-called biradial turbine, whose rotor is of radial flow type. This included numerical modelling and optimization as well as model testing with a 0.5 m diameter rotor.

Since 2008, research has been going on at Instituto Superior Técnico on the hydrodynamic modelling of marine current turbines (MCTs) of the horizontal axis type. The work has concentrated on the development of computer codes for the design and analysis of this type of turbines.

Participation in Collaborative International Projects
International co-operation in Portugal exists mainly in the scope of European Union (EU) funded projects. The Wave Energy Centre (WavEC), a private non-profit association, has been leading a European partnership designed to provide a high quality platform for training young applied researchers in relevant areas of wave energy. The Wavetrain2 (2009-2012) follows the successful Wavetrain RTN (2004 – 2008). 

Other major projects in which Portugal has been involved in EU consortiums, the last two initiated in late 2011, include:

EQUIMAR (2008-2011) - Equitable Testing and Evaluation of Marine Energy Extraction Devices in terms of Performance, Cost and Environmental Impact. EU 7FP funded (STREP programme). WavEC participated in this project.

SOWFIA (2010-2012) - “Streamlining of Ocean Wave Farms Impact Assessment” aims to facilitate the development of European wide, coordinated, unified and streamlined environmental and socio-economic Impact Assessment (IA) tools for offshore wave energy conversion developments. Wave farm demonstration projects will be studied in each of the collaborating EU nations. WavEC is participating in this project.

FAME (2010-2012) - “The Future of the Atlantic Marine Environment” - financed by the EC INTERREG IV programme, with the aim to link the protection of natural values, specifically biodiversity (avifauna) with economic activities at the European Atlantic Ocean. WavEC is participating in this project.

Aqua-RET2 (2009-2011) - “Dissemination activities and transfer of technology in the ocean energy sector” (EU - Leonardo da Vinci - Lifelong Learning Programme). WavEC participated in this project. 

ORECCA (2009-2011) - The goals of the ORECCA project (Off-shore Renewable Energy Conversion Platforms – Coordination Action) are to create a framework for knowledge sharing and to develop a roadmap for research activities in the context of offshore renewable energy that are a relatively new and challenging field of interest. LNEG and WavEC participated in this project.

CORES (2008-2011) - “Components for Renewable Ocean Energy Systems”. EU
7FP funded (RTD programme). This project concentrated on the development of a toolbox of the wave to wire simulations to be applied to the OE Buoy Technology, developed by the Irish company Ocean Energy Ltd. Within the framework of CORES project, Instituto Superior Técnico carried out the aerodynamic design of an impulse air turbine with controlled guide vanes that was installed at the Backward Bent Duct Buoy (BBDB) OWC converter, and tested at Galway Bay, Ireland, in Spring 2011. IST, WavEC and Kymaner participated in this project.

WAVEPORT (2009-2012) - “Demonstration & Deployment of a Commercial Scale Wave Energy Converter with an Innovative Real Time Wave by Wave Tuning System” (EU FP7 programme), with the aim to demonstrate a large scale grid connected, 600kW peak rated, Powerbuoy Technology. WavEC is participating in this project.

SURGE (2009-2011) - The European Project SURGE (Simple Underwater Renewable Generation of Electricity) is funded by the EC under FP7 and intends to test and assess the second generation of the Finnish WaveRoller device, near Peniche. After testing the prototype WaveRoller1 at full-scale at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), in Scotland and in Portugal, AW-Energy, owner of the technology, will install and test its second prototype in Portuguese waters. WavEC and ENEÓLICA are participating in this project.

MARINET (2011-2015) - The aim of this project is to coordinate research and development at all scales (small models through to prototype scales from Laboratory through to Open Sea tests) and to allow access for researchers and developers into facilities, which are not universally available in Europe. WavEC offers the Pico Plant, as a testing facility for air turbines. 

TROPOS (2011-2015) - “Modular Multi-use Deep Water Offshore Platform Harnessing and Servicing Mediterranean, Subtropical and Tropical Marine and Maritime Resources”. The aim is to develop a floating modular multi-use platform system for use in deep waters. WavEC is participating in this project. 

Operational Ocean Energy projects

Pico Plant (Azores)
On the Island of Pico, Azores, WavEC runs an OWC (Oscillating Water Column; www.pico-owc.net) type wave energy plant, presently among the very few functional wave power plants worldwide. Whereas 2010 had been a very successful year with the plant operating in autonomous mode for 3 months, yielding a total of 1425 operational hours and 45MWh fed into the grid, a severe generator failure halted operations until 2012.

At present, efforts are focused to attract funding for preparing the plant as open test centre, as one full-scale turbine duct in the structure is available. Pico OWC is a unique structure, allowing testing commercially-sized turbines and auxiliary equipments (up to ~700 kW). Despite its recent inclusion in the large-scale infrastructure project MariNET and the proof of technology demonstrated over the last 1-2 years, the plant requires substantial investment (~ €1.5 million required in short term) in order to enable another 5-10 years of service.

New Developments

ENEÓLICA is actively participating in the demonstration and deployment of a new WaveRoller unit to be placed nearshore Peniche (100 km north of Lisbon). The construction of the steel foundation for the three wings was delayed, due to late adaptations in the design. Nevertheless, the project has advanced significantly and wing construction in Peniche shipyards has started. WavEC continued it environmental baseline work and dissemination efforts together with Peniche municipality. The new planning foresees deployment in the spring of 2012.

Kymaner is a small-medium enterprise focused on the demonstration of the validity of the oscillating water column approach for the exploitation of wave energy. During 2011, the company concentrated on commissioning and test in Galway Bay (Ireland) of an efficient and innovative impulse turbine for the ¼ scale Ocean Energy Ltd device in the context of the FP7 CORES project and development of offshore modules for a new OWC concept, designed for cost effectiveness and compactness.

Sea for Life is a Portuguese company that aims to develop and commercialize wave energy technology. It has in its premises a wave tank that is being used to test the WEGA concept to harness wave energy. Its project - WEGA - wave energy gravitational absorber, started in 2010, is currently being developed by the company.