INESC-TEC: European alliance to drive future of offshore wind power

After joining the new European offshore demonstration platform High Power Test Sites (HiPoTeSis) last July, the Companhia da Energia Oceânica (CEO) - a company led by INESC TEC and WavEC Offshore Renewables - is now joining efforts with the other four entities involved to accelerate the deployment of offshore wind power.

During the WindEnergy Hamburg event, a seminar organised by the World Forum Offshore Wind, the five European demonstration sites (BiMEP and PLOCAN from Spain, CEO from Portugal, Fondation OPEN-C from France and METCentre from Norway), reinforced the commitment that led to the creation of the alliance, and presented their points of action: creating a faster licensing system; ensuring that two new demonstration projects are funded by the European Union each year; developing a European financial support scheme to invest in infrastructures (substations and cables that connect to the mainland), and promoting data sharing between projects to boost innovation.

Carlos Pinho, Chairman of the Board of Directors at CEO, mentioned that "renewable energy testing centres are vital to achieve European ambitions for the production of renewable energy, namely through the installation of offshore wind infrastructures"; he also stated that "considering the technological advances that have occurred in recent years, the European Commission must rethink the support for said infrastructures, to address the significant investment that must be made to update them - since they're crucial to the testing and demonstration of new high-power solutions".

Updating the infrastructures of the test sites requires substantial investment to prepare for the next generation of high-capacity offshore wind turbines; this includes advancing substations, investing in new submarine cables, and developing new data collection and processing systems, among other elements. There is also a need to streamline the licensing process. Currently, in Europe, these test sites are subject to the same licensing procedures as commercial facilities, which can take years to obtain licenses. Carlos Pinho argued that "the licensing process must be simpler if we want to maintain Europe's leadership in this sector, considering that these licences are intended for technologies at a specific stage of development and demonstration. They are installed for a limited period, giving them a very different nature and purpose from commercial wind farms."

In their agreement, the testing centres stressed that the floating offshore wind industry in Europe can still secure global leadership and call for more incentives to share data from EU-funded projects to drive innovation.

It's worth mentioning that CEO is the managing entity of the Marine Renewable Energy test platform in Aguçadoura - also involved in demonstrating the world’s first wave energy farm, located in Póvoa de Varzim, in northern Portugal. The main differentiating aspect of this infrastructure is the exposure to the Atlantic Ocean's harsh conditions and the connection to the national power grid.