The 15th edition of Offshore Energy Exhibition & Conference (OEEC) can look back at a successful and inspiring event. It brought together over 400 exhibitors and more than 6,500 registered visitors at the Home of Energy Transition in RAI Amsterdam. At the same time, the MEA Final Conference took place at OEEC, welcoming partners and SMEs active in the marine energy sector.
The Marine Energy Alliance (MEA) project has nearly reached its finish line after four years of activity. The end of the project was celebrated during the MEA Final Conference. Participants had the opportunity to reflect on the project results, engage with stakeholders, exchange on cross-sector collaboration and showcase the potential of marine energy.
The potential of marine energy was showcased by the presence of numerous technologies present on the exhibition floor, during the presentations, interviews and program sessions.
The final conference kicked-off with the session from MEA partners who shared their know-how on what it takes to get innovative clean energy-generating technology from the drawing board all the way to the sea, backed up with ‘the perfect’ commercial strategy for successful global scale-up. Speaking about the technology in marine energy, Thomas Soulard from Centrale Nantes highlighted:
“Making a priority list in the technology assessment process, backed up with related cost estimate, is one of the best ways to get the innovative marine energy technology closer to commercial readiness in the fastest way possible”.
Furthermore, MEA SMEs presented their solutions during the Marine Energy Talks sessions on The Stage. The presentations from Tuesday, 29 November were held by SolarDuck, EVER, and WEDUSEA.
SolarDuck is joining RWE on the Hollandse Kust (West) VII project, for which the company will provide the floating solar part of development that will be integrated into RWE’s offshore wind farm, forming the largest hybrid power plant of that kind in the world.
Paula van Lieshout, Project Manager at SolarDuck, brought the company’s plans closer with her presentation on the stage. Next was Energies des Vagues Et Renouvelables (EVER), with the company’s chief executive Félix Elefant, who provided a showcase of the innovative wave energy device based on ‘rotating mass’ converter technology.
Wrapping it up was Ray Alcorn, the head of Exceedence, who talked about the pioneering €19.6 million project, dubbed WEDUSEA, which aims to be the stepping stone towards large-scale wave energy commercialization.
The MEA program continued with the conference session ‘Scaling-up Marine Energy’. In the fully-packed conference room, Benjamin Lehner, CTO of Dutch Marine Energy Centre (DMEC), Anders Jansson, Head of Business Developments at CorPower Ocean, Raphael Sauter, Team Leader, DG ENER European Commission, Sue Barr, Director of Marine Energy at Simply Blue Group, Tom Berendsen, member of the European Parliament, Yuki Esser, Business & Innovation Advisor at DMEC, Patricia Schouten, Policy Officer Ministry of Infrastructure & Water Management, and Eduardo Dellarole, Head of Facilities and Production R&D Projects at ENI, kick-offed the session.
Panelists discussed the latest marine energy deployments and opportunities to scale up these ambitious projects from a business, policy and technological perspective.
The second day of the MEA Final Conference kicked-off with another round of Marine Energy Talks on The Stage, with INGINE, HelioRec, NoviOcean and Symphony Wave Power.
“Once we scale up our wave energy technology successfully up to 2MW, we will be able to cost-effectively replace diesel generators used by island communities”, Jeff Lee from INGINE Wave Energy Systems.
It was highlighted numerous times that marine energy has a lot to offer to meet our energy goals. Coco Kossman interviewed Yuki Esser from the Dutch Marin Energy Centre (DMEC). Esser pointed out the growing interest of the wider offshore energy sector in the marine energy, and said: “We really believe that in order to meet our energy goals, we need all renewable energy sources, with marine energy included. Only by combining this, and having a diverse energy mix, we can actually meet our sustainability goals.”
2023
For those who would like to (re)-watch the content program, all sessions have been recorded and are available On Demand. The next edition of Offshore Energy Exhibition & Conference takes place on 28 & 29 November 2023.
