"The conference was attended by more than 400 participants from different countries, with a large representation of international delegates"
Attended by more than 400 people, Bilbao hosted the 15th EWTEC 2023, an exceptional forum knowledge transfer on marine renewable energy.
The University of the Basque Country, through the Higher Technical School of Engineering of Bilbao, hosted this edition of EWTEC, chaired by Jesús Mari Blanco (UPV/EHU) and co-chaired by Jose Luis Villate, Director of Renewables and Thermal Efficiency at TECNALIA. TECNALIA's offshore renewable energy team has also participated actively in the organisation of the conference in recent months, through the Joint Research Laboratory on Offshore Renewable Energy (JRL-ORE).
Electrification and renewable energy
The conference’s opening ceremony, held at Bizkaia Aretoa, was attended by Jesús Mari Blanco and José Luis Villate, Co-Presidents of EWTEC 2023; Cameron Johnstone, President of EB EWTEC (University of Strathclyde), Gorka Moreno, Vice-Rector of the Bizkaia Campus of the UPV/EHU, and Mikel Amundarain, Basque Government’s Deputy Minister for Industry.
José Luis Villate highlighted the importance of electrification for the decarbonisation of our economy and to combat climate change. Currently, only 24% of energy consumption in Europe is in the form of electricity. The rest is mainly fossil fuels for transport, heating and industrial processes.
This electrification process must be based on renewable energy. Onshore and offshore wind energy and photovoltaics have become conventional sources, which will need to be complemented by other renewable sources. EWTEC 2023 contributed to boosting technological and industrial development of emerging renewable energy sources, such as wave and tidal power.
Wave and tidal power solutions
TECNALIA has been working on solutions for the offshoreenvironment for more than 20 years. At these conferences, it presented various solutions in the field of wave and tidal power.
- Pablo Ruiz-Minguela shared successful innovation strategies to overcome the technical challenges in the development of wave energy technologies.
- Joannes Berque presented a new type of wave tank.
- Eider Robles presented the JRL-ORE, made up of TECNALIA, BCAM and UPV/EHU. It aims to strengthen synergies between the parties involved in marine renewable energy research.
Furthermore, experts from the research and development centre reviewed the contributions presented at the conference and moderated various technical sessions on marine renewable energy.
