Basques open marine renewables demonstration call

The Basque energy agency Ente Vasco de la Energía (EVE) has launched a call for marine renewable energy demonstration projects that will be funded under the state aid program for renewable energy development.

The aim of EVE’s €2.5 million aid program, running from 2021-2023, is to promote the demonstration and validation of emerging marine renewable energy technologies within the autonomous community of the Basque Country.

The call for applications has been launched on 19 May, and will remain open until 29 October 2021, or until the allocated budget is exhausted.

The projects eligible for support include pilot testing of prototypes at full-scale, or almost full-scale, for wave energy, offshore wind, and floating wind platforms currently at the demonstration and validation development phase.

The call will also support pilot testing of auxiliary equipment or components considered as complementary to any of the prototypes described above.

All actions funded under the call will have to be carried out in open-sea testing facilities within the Basque Country, EVE noted.

Projects may be submitted as an individual proposal, or as a collaborative proposal, taken forward together by various companies and organizations.

Also, the projects must target commercialisation, present innovative solutions and be replicable and scalable.

Furthermore, all projects submitted must demonstrate that the prototypes for testing have successfully gone through a rigorous R&D stage, with tests conducted on different operational scales in acknowledged and certified facilities, and that the designs, performance and project costs have been verified, EVE noted.