Strategy and National Targets
The Spanish Government officially approved the “Renewable Energy Plan 2011 2020” in November 2011. This plan includes targets for ocean energy for the first time:

• The first 10 MW of installed ocean power are expected by 2016;
   
• An annual growth rate of 20 - 25 MW between 2016 and 2020 is expected to accumulate to 100 MW by 2020;
  The average electricity production in the period 2011 - 2020 will be approximately 50GWh/annum with a peak in 2020 of 220 GWh/annum.

The plan foresees an important growth of ocean energy after 2020 with the following phases:

• Reliability confirmation (2010 - 2015): simulation, modelling and prototypes will be key aspects. Cost of the electricity is not a major issue during this phase; u Technology development (2016 - 2020): demonstration of full-scale prototypes with generation costs between €21 and €33 per MWh;
   
• Technology consolidation (2021-2030): commercial deployment of ocean power plants with a cost reduction of the electricity down to €7- €15 per MWh;

Support Initiatives and Market Stimulation Incentives
The Spanish Renewable Energy Plan 2011 - 2020 includes some strategic actions to facilitate the achievement of its targets. Regarding ocean energy the following actions are proposed:

Technology strategy actions

• An intensive R&D programme focused on new designs and components clearly aimed at reducing costs and improving the survivability of the devices;
   
• A demonstration programme aimed at developing and testing small scale prototypes;
  Support of experimental testing infrastructures to validate the performance of the devices during the full life cycle. This includes a specific and simplified consenting process for experimental platforms;
   
• Collaboration with other European countries by means of an initiative of the European Union focused on improving the reliability and new installation techniques.

Non-technology strategy actions

• Definition of a specific regulatory framework for ocean energy projects, with simplified licensing processes;
   
• Modification of the feed-in tariff system to create a different group for ocean energy more appropriate for its stage of development;
   
• Planning of grid infrastructures to facilitate ocean energy integration;
   
• General dissemination and promotion campaigns amongst different stakeholders to improve social acceptance and to facilitate a new market.
   
• There is a feed-in tariff system for the support of renewable energy sources in Spain but this system is not very attractive for ocean energy. It is possible to negotiate a specific tariff for every individual project, depending on the investment cost. However, a comprehensive description of the project is required and no references are available so far.

Relevant Legislation and Regulation
There are no additional changes in the current Spanish legislation regarding ocean energy, which is defined by means of two Royal Decrees from 2007. The first establishes the administrative procedure to apply for an authorisation for electricity generation installations at sea. The second sets the feed-in tariff mechanisms. As mentioned before, the legal situation of ocean energy in Spain needs important improvements, which should cover the following aspects, according to the Renewable Energy Plan 2011-2020:

• Simplification of administrative procedures;
   
• R&D subsidies for technology development, including prototypes, resource assessment and experimental platforms;
   
• Investment grants for demonstration and pre-commercial projects;
   
• Specific and more attractive feed-in tariff system for ocean energy projects.

Relevant documents released
The Renewable Energy Plan 2011-2020 is available in Spanish at www.idae.es. It includes some technical support documents, such as a detailed evaluation of the Spanish wave energy resource. 

2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: This report has been prepared with the collaboration of APPA-Marina, the ocean energy section of the Spanish Renewable Energy Association. APPA-Marina represents the voice of the Spanish ocean energy industry with two main objectives: to promote an appropriate legal framework and to facilitate a successful technology development, both with the final goal of putting ocean 

Government and Industry Funded R&D
The most important R&D project has been running since 2009 partially funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation within its CENIT programme. OceanLider, led by “Iberdrola Ingeniería y Construcción”, includes several R&D activities with a holistic perspective, covering the following research lines:

• Identification and characterisation of suitable sites and optimum resource assessment;
   
• Technology development of wave and tidal devices, including hybrid systems with offshore wind;
   
• Distribution, transportation, transformation and quality of electricity;
   
• Management, maintenance and intelligent communication systems;
   
• Technologies and systems for the operation and safety;
   
• Preservation of resources, environmental management and climate change.

The project has a budget of €30 million (€15 million public funding) a duration of 40 months and the participation of 20 industrial partners and 24 research centres. 

Within the OceanLider project, Norvento Enerxía is developing its own concept of a wave energy converter. The system is between a point absorber and an outline tracker. The prototype is made up of collectingconverter floating units which capture the power in all directions. Nowadays, the design and manufacture of a scale prototype is being carried out to test in real conditions on the Atlantic coast. Such trials will allow validation and optimization of the designs and systems for the subsequent full-scale application. 
Norvento is also developing other projects in the ocean renewable energy field in order to promote the sector, for example, Operation and Maintenance in Ocean Renewable Energy Installations, Swell Resource Assessment on the Atlantic Coast, and Environmental Studies in Ocean Renewable Energy Installations.

Participation in Collaborative International Projects

Coordination of European Ocean Energy Research 
Within the context of the European Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-plan), fifteen leading European Research Institutes have taken up the challenge to found a European Energy Research Alliance (EERA). The key objective of the EERA is to accelerate the development of new energy technologies by conceiving and implementing Joint Research Programmes in support of the SET-plan pool and integrate activities and resources, combining national and Community sources of funding and maximising complementarities and synergies.

In 2011, a Joint Research Programme (JP) on ocean energy was launched with the active participation of Spain through the involvement of TECNALIA. The EERA Ocean Energy JP is based around six key research themes. These themes have been developed, based on existing research roadmaps, which identify the critical areas of research required for the successful growth of the industry. The 6 search themes are Resource, Devices and Technology, Deployment and Operations, Environmental Impact, Socio-economic Impact and Research Infrastructure, Education and Training.

Spain is participating in all of the research themes and TECNALIA is leading the “Deployment and Operation” theme together with the German centre Fraunhofer IWES.

MaRINET - Marine Renewables Infrastructure Network
The Spanish marine renewable energy sector is set to benefit from a new €9 million EU-funded initiative to provide access to test facilities in specialist marine renewable energy centres across Europe. ‘MaRINET’ (Marine Renewables Infrastructure Network) offers periods of marine renewable energy testing at these centres at no cost to participants through funding from the European Commission. The initiative, with at least four calls for applications, runs until 2015 and the first call for applications started in December 2011. 

In Spain, EVE and TECNALIA are key partners in this initiative: TECNALIA is offering its Electrical PTO lab testing facilities, and EVE is offering its Mutriku OWC plant and BIMEP testing facilities. A significant number of European companies and research groups are expected to apply to use these facilities. Further information can be found at www.fp7-marinet.eu

Spanish leadership in offshore multi-purpose platforms
With the leadership of the Spanish company Acciona Energia, the European MARINA-Platform project will establish a set of equitable and transparent criteria for the evaluation of multi-purpose platforms for marine renewable energy. Using these criteria, the project will produce a novel, whole-system set of design and optimisation tools addressing, inter alia, new platform design, component engineering, risk assessment, spatial planning, platform-related grid connection concepts, all focused on system integration and reducing costs. These tools will be used, incorporating into the evaluation all presently known proposed designs including (but not limited to) concepts originated by the project partners, to produce two or three realisations of multi-purpose renewable energy platforms. The MARINA-Platform project started in January 2010 with the support of the European Commission through the seventh framework programme and will run during 54 months. More information at www.marina-platform.info

PLOCAN
The Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN), is leading another European Project (TROPOS) recently funded under the call “the Ocean of Tomorrow”. The objective of this project is to design multiuse offshore platforms where ocean energy plays a key role.

Operational Ocean Energy Projects

The Biscay Marine Energy Platform – bimep – provides wave energy device manufacturers with facilities to validate their designs and to test their technical and economic feasibility. The Basque coast, and specifically the location of bimep off the coast of Armintza (Bizkaia), offers suitable wave conditions for device testing and a relatively low exposure to extreme waves that could damage the prototypes. Bimep occupies a 5.3 km2 marked area excluded for navigation and maritime traffic, and located at a minimum distance of 1,700 m from shore, close enough for fast access to deployed devices. The total power of 20 MW is distributed over four offshore connection points of 5 MW each at 50-90 m water depths. 

Once authorisation has been granted for the installation of facilities and contracts awarded for the supply and installation of submarine power lines and ground cables, which will transfer power from the offshore sites to land, bimep is expected to commence operations in the last quarter of 2012. 

      Aerial view of the bimep area

The Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN) is a public consortium aimed to build and operate an offshore infrastructure to facilitate and accelerate the development of new oceanic technologies. The Spanish Government (50%) and the Regional Government of the Canary Islands (50%) govern PLOCAN. This Consortium is located on the island of Gran Canaria. PLOCAN offers a marine test site for ocean energy converters prototypes. The submarine electrical infrastructure is being designed (expected by the end 2013) offering the required grid connection. The initial capacity is set in 10 MW with a future extension planned up to 50 MW by 2020. Main technologies on testing will be related with waves and offshore wind conversion.

The PLOCAN marine test site is currently involved in several projects related with wave energy conversion:  

WELCOME project and PIPO Systems: The WELCOME Project was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and led by the Spanish company PIPO Systems. The project aimed to design, build and deploy a 1:5 scale wave energy converter prototype (called APC-PISYS and patented by PIPO Systems). The deployment of the small-scale prototype was completed in March 2011 and the company is now working on a new project funded again by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation with the objective of extending the concept of APC-PISYS technology looking for new applications. The deployment is expected by the end of 2012.

UNDIGEN project and Wedge: Wedge is currently leading an Ocean Demonstration Project based on its innovative electrical power take-off (PTO) to be deployed offshore at the Canary Islands’ hub by 2012. This project has been awarded as unique & sole marine project within the 2011 INNPACTO Programme granted by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. The UNDIGEN Project is formed by FCC (Final User), CIEMAT (R&D Institute), PLOCAN (Site) and WEDGE (Tech Company), and is aimed to test the cutting edge electrical solution (switched reluctance) into a standard floating body (WEC) with no grid connection in 2012.

New Developments
Abencis Seapower installed its prototype of a “marine pump” at ¼-scale during 2011. The ultimate goal is the design and construction of a plant to convert wave energy into electricity, in a sustainable and efficient way. The prototype consists of a float-arm structure with a hydraulic system that allows the simulation of any kind of load. Tests are taking place in the Mediterranean Sea and the data collected are being used to optimize the control strategies. The results from the ¼-scale prototype will be used to design a demonstration power plant in the Atlantic Ocean during 2012.

¼ scale Abencis Seapower prototype installed in Sant    OPT Powerbuoy 150kW 
Feliu de Guíxols (Mediterranean Sea)

OPT and the WAVEPORT project
WavePort is a EU funded project lead by Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) who are collaborating in a consortium with Degima SA, University of Exeter, the UK Intelligent Systems Research Institute, Fugro Oceanor, and the Wave Energy Centre (WavEC). WAVEPORT project aims to expedite the development of alternative devices by installing in Santoña site in Spain a ten port “open platform” 1.5 MW-rated underwater substation pod for the validation of future wave energy converters. To address the need for improved efficiency, a novel Real-Time Wave-by-Wave tuning system is being developed.
 

                                     Turbines of the Mutriku OWC plant