Blue-GIFT, a project funded by the Atlantic Area Interreg Programme through the European Regional Development Fund, aims to help companies in the Atlantic Area regions to test the next generation of marine renewable energy technologies (MRE) in real marine environments and demonstrate that energy can be economically generated from the ocean. The project promotes long-term demonstration and technology risk reduction by enabling access to test beds across the Atlantic Area, thereby reducing the costs of testing and validating technologies in a real-world environment.
Such access will be granted through a series of competitive calls where a User Selection Board will assess the proposals received for their suitability and, if approved, grant support for access to the test bed chosen by users in the form of a voucher for a support package.
Blue-GIFT will lead to a minimum of 8 pre-commercial demonstrations of wind, wave or tidal marine renewable energy technologies, more than 24,000 operating hours, work with more than 20 SMEs, sustain more than 30 jobs and help secure a ¤15 million investment in MRE companies.
The project partners are:
– EMEC (wave and tidal test bed) in Orkney, Scotland – LEAD PARTNER;
– BiMEP (wave and floating wind test bed) in the Basque Country, Spain;
– PLOCAN (wave and floating wind test bed) in Gran Canaria, Spain;
– SEENEOH (tidal and river current test bed) in Bordeaux, France;
– Wavec (wave and floating wind test bed) in Lisbon, Portugal;
– SmartBay Ireland (marine and renewable energy test bed) in Galway; Ireland and
– Centrale Nantes, SEM-REV (floating wave and wind test bed) on the west coast of France.
