WavEC Offshore Renewables, Sines Tecnopolo, APS (Ports of Sines and the Algarve Authority) and Teamwork Technology, supported by DMEC – Dutch Marine Energy Centre, will sign a Letter of Intent on October 11, 2017, to formally set up a sea testing facility.
The signing ceremony will take place in Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon, WavEC informed.
The harbour of Sines has been indicated as a preferred location for such facility because the testing of sea technologies requires preferably deep water, good infrastructure support, proximity to a harbour and appropriate wave and wind resources.
The facility will suit the purpose of technology development and in-situ testing of technologies but will also have educational and dissemination purposes. The place will be open to trainees that will receive hand-on experience in developing, building and operating the devices, building professional human capacity for this new industry, the company explained.
The new centre is aligned with the report “Energia no Mar – Roteiro para uma Estratégia Industrial das Energias Renováveis Oceânicas”, approved by the Portuguese Government at the end of 2016 as a strategic vision for this sector in Portugal.
In 2004 the Dutch company Teamwork Technology explored the north of the Portuguese Coast in Aguçadoura with its wave energy device Archimedes Wave Swing (AWS). This Aguçadoura infrastructure is nowadays the basis of the test facility available for grid-connected offshore wind and wave energy sea trials.
To develop the marine renewable energy opportunities, there is a need for a cooperation between both countries to combine the know-how of the Dutch offshore industry and the Portuguese supply chain and home market.
WavEC, as a partner of this consortium, is looking forward for the cooperation between these entities that will lead to the development of this new sector.