The FORESEA (Funding Ocean Energy through Strategic European Action) programme has launched its fifth call for proposals aiming to help developers of offshore low carbon technologies test products or services in real sea environments.
This end-of-project call is said to be launched due to continued demand for support of real-sea operations and demonstration projects from offshore technology developers and supply chain companies.
The call, open until 25 January 2019, is expected to bridge the gap between FORESEA and a potential follow-up project.
Successful applicants must be able to test technologies during this year, as the programme support for accessing the test facilities will end in December.
“FORESEA has been very successful in supporting ocean energy technologies to test at sea across North West Europe. To date, 19 technologies have successfully deployed, twelve of which have already completed their testing programme under FORESEA,” said Nic Wallet , Programme Manager at EMEC.
“We’ve seen a diverse range of technologies demonstrated through the programme, including wave, tidal and wind energy, as well as underwater data centres , biofouling solutions, acoustic monitoring, and forensic decommissioning.”
FORESEA is a EUR 11 million project which helps to bring offshore renewable energy technologies to market by offering free access to a network of test centres, including EMEC in the UK, DMEC in the Netherlands, SEM REV in France and SmartBay in Ireland.
It is funded by the Interreg North West Europe programme, part of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).