“TECNALIA is developing tidal energy and offshore floating photovoltaics innovations and boosting the energy transition”
The European Commission is working on the EU Strategy on Offshore Renewable Energy to help to achieve the EU’s goal of climate neutrality by 2050.
The EU Strategy proposes to increase Europe’s offshore wind energy production capacity and to complement it with ocean energy and other emerging technologies, such as floating solar power. The recent revision of the strategy shows even more ambitious global goals, aligned with decarbonisation policies, and renews support for ocean energy.
In view of the growing need for efficient, clean and renewable energy sources, TECNALIA is working on new innovations.
Advances in tidal energy
In the field of tidal energy, TECNALIA is promoting the improvement of levelised cost of energy (LCOE) and boosting the implementation of this technology.
The MAXBlade project will address in a comprehensive way the challenges of this technology, such as design, reliability, condition monitoring, maintenance and control of turbine blades, applying the principles of circular economy in all developments. Specifically, TECNALIA is collaborating in the specification and offshore testing of blade coatings, marinisation of rotor components, as well as the assessment of turbine operations and performance based on international metrics.
Offshore floating photovoltaics
Due to the large surface area of the earth’s seas and oceans, taking photovoltaics to this environment is an attractive option. However, the harsh sea conditions pose many challenges that need to be addressed, like the floating structures on which the PV panels are installed.
TECNALIA is taking part in the development of innovative structural designs and materials capable of withstanding marine conditions, guaranteeing durability and minimising installation costs. The structures to be developed as part of the NATURSEA-PV initiative will be based on ultra-high performance concrete that is more environmentally friendly. A set of specific predictive simulation tools will also be developed to assess the mechanical and chemical durability of new materials. Developments will be validated in the laboratory as well as in a real controlled environment.
TECNALIA is collaborating in EKIOCEAN, an initiative that researches new sustainable concepts for floating photovoltaic plants for the marine environment, addressing their entire value chain. It also aims to generate knowledge that will boost the development of the sector and turn into in business opportunities for Basque industry.
Cooperation in the ocean energy sector
Collaboration between all stakeholders in the marine energy sector is essential in order to boost the implementation of these technologies. In this sense, TECNALIA is taking part in the SEETIP Ocean project, which aims to bring people and organisations together, exchange and create knowledge and closer connections, maximising scientific excellence at European level and making just transition sustainability an integral part of ocean energy development.
Specifically, TECNALIA is leading the process of updating the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda for Ocean Energy 2025-2030.
The aforementioned developments are being carried out in the framework of the European innovation projects MAXBLADE, SEETIP OCEAN and NATURSEA-PV. These projects have received funding from the Horizon EU research and innovation programme under grant agreements No. 101096891, 101075412 and 101084348.
