European SCalable Offshore Renewable Energy Sources (EU-SCORES) – a new €45M (US$53M) marine energy project – is hoping to deliver bankable multi-source offshore wind parks across Europe by 2025
Co-ordinated by Dutch Marine Energy Centre, the EU-SCORES project brings together leading wave energy and offshore solar PV technology providers CorPower Ocean and Oceans of Energy, project developers RWE, EDP, ENEL Green Power, Simply Blue Group and research institutions to exploit the enormous potential of combined wind, wave and offshore solar systems in sites across Portugal and Belgium.
Beginning September 2021, the project will build on two comprehensive demonstrations.
The first is a wave energy array in Portugal co-located with an offshore windfarm and the second, an offshore solar PV system in Belgium co-located with a bottom fixed windfarm.
The partners believe the project’s multi-source demonstrations will show that consistent power output harnessing complementary power sources are capable of creating a more resilient and stable power system, higher capacity factors and a lower total cost of the power system.
It is also hoped the demonstrations will highlight the business case for green hydrogen production, by allowing electrolysers to run at higher utilisation. Major project developers and utility companies will further strengthen demonstration efforts, paving the way for future large-scale commercialisation of hybrid wave-wind-solar parks.
CorPower Ocean commercial director Kevin Rebenius said, “We see great value in showcasing the highly consistent and complementary power profile of wave energy, and how this can be combined with wind and solar to deliver a more stable and predictable electricity system based purely on renewables. By generating electricity also when the wind doesn’t blow or the sun doesn’t shine, wave energy can help fill the gaps and thereby become an important part of the mix to stabilise future electricity systems.”
Energy system modelling to quantify the value of the combined offshore energy sources will be led by Finland’s LUT University. The demonstrations will also prove how the increased power output and capacity installed per km2 will reduce the amount of marine space needed, thereby leaving more space for aquaculture, fisheries, shipping routes and environmentally protected zones.
Additional benefits achieved by co-using critical electrical infrastructure and exploring advanced operation and maintenance methodologies supported by innovative autonomous systems are also expected to lower the costs per MWh.
The project will run until August 2025 supported by €34.8M (US$41M) in funding from the European Green Deal in the last Horizon 2020 call.
Global annual electricity consumption (currently about 21,000 TWh) is expected to double by 2050 and with the EU looking to transition towards net-zero GHG emissions by then, the EU-SCORES project comes with big expectations.
European Commission DG Research senior policy officer Matthijs Soede remarked, “We have very high expectations from the EU-SCORES project, which perfectly fits with our aim to realise the Green Deal. It shows great ambition by demonstrating different energy sources considering efficient use of the seas and its success will support the clean energy transition.“
EU-SCORES includes the following project partners: Dutch Marine Energy Centre, CorPower Ocean, Oceans of Energy, EDP Labelec, ENEL Green Power, RWE Renewables, Western Star Wave Limited, SBM Offshore Group, LUT University, WavEC Offshore Renewables, Exceedence, INNOSEA – LOC Group, Technische Universiteit Delft, Uppsala University, INESCTEC, POM and RINA Consulting.
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