European policy-makers are facing a challenging strategy – a balancing act of combating climate change and securing the energy supply, while ensuring global cost competitiveness.
The ocean can become a major element of this strategy: ocean energy. Europe has the oldest maritime industry, vast ocean energy resources and it is a pioneer in ocean energy technologies. It is well positioned to lead the world in harvesting ocean energy. Now is the time for the EU to act in a coordinated manner in order to develop these technologies to their full potential and consequently export them around the globe. Ocean energy technologies are maturing, but their development needs to be accelerated by a policy framework, equivalent to that which promoted the offshore oil and gas sector from the 1960s onwards and, more recently, the offshore wind sector.
This Roadmap is the work of the European Ocean Energy Association; it is intended to map out the potential development of ocean energy up to 2020 and beyond to 2050.
The Roadmap identifies issues and barriers surrounding the sector. We intend this document to be the first step towards a similar policy framework that European countries implemented for offshore oil and gas and offshore wind.
Ocean energy is a European matter, whether there is a coastline or not. Ocean energy offers a domestic energy resource for the EU which, to-date, has been largely untapped. Companies that make up the ocean energy sector recognise the challenges that need to be overcome to make the vision a reality. They are ready to invest the time and money required to advance the European ocean energy industry. This roadmap calls on the EU Member States and the European Commission to provide strong policy measures and adequate support for the sector to realise its full potential.
