Brief review from the 27th ExCo Meeting held in Halifax, Canada, on 10-11 November 2014

The Executive Committee of Ocean Energy Systems (OES), an International Energy Agency (IEA) Technology Initiative, announces the outcomes of its 27th Meeting held in Halifax, Canada on 10-11 November 2014.

Delegates from 15 member countries attended the meeting Canada, Denmark, China, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Nigeria, Mexico, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, UK and USA. Moreover two observers were present: India and The European Commission.

On the week before most of the delegates attended the International Conference on Ocean Energy - ICOE 2014 ( www.icoe-conference.com)

Here we present news from non-members India and European Commission. Below this is listed the news from each OES member country.

India
The National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, has been actively developing R&D projects:

• Start of preliminary work  towards the development of a Numerical Offshore Tank facility 
• Development of hydrokinetic turbines for  ocean currents  to harness energy from low current speeds, involving computational fluid dynamics studies, small scale model testing and field trials.
• Open sea trials of  the BBDB (backward bent ducted buoy) wave energy device  for studying damping and pneumatic efficiency
• Design of a small scale OTEC desalination laboratory to test system components, expected to be ready in 6 months time.

European Commission
Two important communications and a directive were adopted in 2014 by the European Commission:

• Blue Growth Communication (January 2014), highlighting the need for an action to deliver the potential of ocean energy in Europe by 2020 and beyond. In this context, two actions have been established: set up of an Ocean Energy Forum with 3 workstreams (Technology, Finance and Environment & Consenting) aiming to give inputs to a strategic roadmap. In phase II, a European Industrial Initiative on Ocean Energy will be developed. See website here. 
  
• Blue Innovation Communication (May 2014), realizing the potential of ocean energy to drive growth and jobs in Europe. See website here.
  
• Legislation to create a common framework for maritime spatial planning (July 2014). Read document here,

 
The second call for proposals for the NER 300 programme was in July 2014, with a maximum funding of €142 million allocated to ocean energy. This is one of the world's largest programmes for low-carbon projects, funded from the sale of 300 million emission allowances in the New Entrants Reserve (NER) of the European Union Emissions Trading System. Five ocean energy projects won this funding, two in the first call in 2012 and three in this second call:

• A 10 MW array of 3-bladed tidal current turbines in the Sound of Islay (UK)
• Kyle Rhea Tidal Turbine Array, a 8 MW array of twin tidal current turbines (UK)
• A 16 MW OTEC system in a floating barge in Martinique (overseas region of France)
• WestWave project, a 5 MW array in Killard Point in County Clare (Ireland). 
• SWELL project, a 5.6 MW project of sixteen 350 kW wave energy converters in Peniche (Portugal)