The European projects AquaWind and Flora, which will test their prototypes on the test site of the Canary Islands Ocean Platform (PLOCAN), have laid the foundations for future collaborations in the field of marine energy and the sustainable blue economy at an event held in the Port of Las Palmas Foundation.
AquaWind, led by the Canarian Agency for Research, Innovation and Information Society (ACIISI) of the Government of the Canary Islands, aims to carry out a demonstration test of an integrated multi-use solution, uniting the existing prototype of marine renewable energy production (W2Power) with an innovative aquaculture solution. The new prototype uses an innovative network material, will have a high level of digitization, with the implementation of sensors and automation that will allow remote control of the installation. In turn, this project will be a pioneer in Europe by including for the first time a multi-use prototype for testing live fish of two cultivable species: gilthead bream as a commercial model and amberjack or amberjack as a candidate species for aquaculture diversification.
FLORA is a research and innovation project that seeks to optimize and validate a prototype of a multisensory ocean station capable of producing energy to feed its oceanographic data services. This project has been developed by Wedge Global, a Spanish provider of technology and services for the marine energy market. Like the AquaWind W2Power prototype, the FLORA system will be tested in the waters of the PLOCAN test site under real sea conditions for several months.
The European project AquaWind, coordinated from the Canary Islands, and FLORA, pioneering initiatives in the Atlantic region, receive co-financing from the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA), and are aligned with the objectives of the Atlantic Maritime Strategy to develop marine renewable energy and promote the sustainable expansion of the blue economy in the Atlantic area.
The Canary Islands Maritime Cluster with the support of the AquaWind consortium opened the doors to this event, which took place in the new facilities of the Maritime Marine Innovation Center, of the Puertos de Las Palmas Foundation, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. This center is an initiative of the Sociedad de Promoción Económica de Gran Canaria (SPEGC) in collaboration with the Las Palmas Port Authority and the Puerto de Las Palmas Foundation.
During the event, the participants had the opportunity to learn more about the activities of each of the projects and discuss possible synergies and knowledge exchange.
Project name: AquaWind
Project acronym: Innovative multi-use prototype combining offshore renewable energy and aquaculture in the Atlantic Basin
Project grant: 1 066 517.94€
