Tocardo, OpenHydro score multi-million funding from Horizon 2020

European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme has granted multi-million funding for tidal energy projects run separately by Tocardo, OpenHydro, and Magallanes, with their partners.

The ‘Demonstration of Integrated Solution for Offshore Tocardo Tidal Power Plants’ project, coordinated by the Netherlands-based Tocardo, with EMEC, Leask Marine and Ifremer as project partners, has received €2 million, through the fourth round of the Fast Track to Innovation (FTI) scheme run under Horizon 2020.

Another tidal energy project, named ‘Open-Centre Tidal Turbine Industrial Capability’, and coordinated by Ireland-based tidal turbines manufacturer OpenHydro, has received approximately €3 million.

The project partners include Frazer Nash Consultancy, Cockerill Maintenance & Ingénierie (CMI), Nitronica Limited, and JL Mag Europe.

Spanish tidal turbine developer Magallanes Renovables is leading a ‘Second Generation Technologies in Ocean Energy’ project, which was granted €1.9 million. The project partners include Leask Marine, EMEC and ABB.

Carlos Moedas, EU Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, said: “Through Horizon 2020, we want to support innovative businesses to compete in global markets. These results bring the total investment to nearly €135 million in fast-access EU funding for close-to-the-market innovation activities, helping European R&D reach successful commercialisation.”

The fourth round of the Fast Track to Innovation (FTI) scheme awarded nearly €36 million to 16 innovative projects.

The scheme runs during 2015-2016 as a pilot initiative under Horizon 2020, with a budget of €200 million.

The total number of proposals received since the launch of the programme in January 2015 is at 1166, out of which 62 were selected to receive more than €134.7 million in funding in total.