Blue energy to meet tomorrow’s challenge

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Ocean energy is a promising field which will be a real asset to the EU's strategy for attaining its ambitious climate objectives.
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Blue energy is attracting more and more attention. Promising technologies are developing, using ocean currents and tides. Hope is high because blue energy could meet 10% of electricity demand in the EU by 2050.

Indeed, ocean energy offers many advantages:

  • A limited negative impact on marine biodiversity
  • No use of terrestrial resources: onshore solutions such as wind and solar can be controversial to local populations
  • Tides and ocean currents are almost 100% predictable making energy continuously available
  • It would have an important positive impact on the economy, especially local economies, by generating 53 billions of euros by 2050 and 400 000 jobs in the EU

Several blue energy projects are supported by Horizon 2020, the EU funding programme for research and innovation. These projects have been assessed by the Community Research and Development Information Service (CORDIS), the European Commission’s primary source of results from the projects funded by Horizon 2020. CORDIS’ Results Pack on blue energy projects finds these technologies reliable and robust.

To illustrate these blue projects, the FloTEC project completed the first commercial floating tidal turbine demonstrator, the O2. It has the power to meet the electricity needs of over 1 700 homes in the United Kingdom.

FloTEC project

Click on this link to read more about Ocean Energy technology promise in the EU

Resource link: 
Ocean Energy: Promising new technologies to help Europe achieve its ambitious climate goals
Year: 
2020
Topics: 
Climate
Renewable
Resource category: 
EU Financing Initiative