WEDUSEA led by Irish Wave Energy Developer, Ocean Energy, will demonstrate a grid connected 1MW OE35 floating wave energy converter (known as the OE Buoy) at the European Marine Energy Test Site (EMEC) in Orkney, Scotland. This rigorous technical and environmental demonstration will happen over a 2 year period in Atlantic wave conditions with outcomes directly impacting policy, technical standards, public perception and investor confidence. The project will demonstrate that the technology is on a cost reduction trajectory in line with the EU SET Plan targets and will be a stepping stone to larger commercial array scale up and further industrialisation. The action will integrate sub components such as moorings and PTOs - improving efficiency, reliability, scalability, sustainability and circularity of the technology. The combined actions of the work programme are expected to reduce the LCOE for the technology from €361/MWh to €245/MWh, a 32% reduction. For a 20MW array the LCOE would reduce from €185/MWh to €127/MWh. The project has 3 clear phases, phase 1 the initial design phase leading into a Go/No Go, phase 2 Demonstration in which it is expected that the baseline device will generate in excess of 1,650 MWh over the deployment and Phase 3 Commercialisation and Dissemination which sees the capitalisation and exploitation of the results. Ocean Energy and other consortium companies will actively exploit the results through new innovations, products and services. The results will be disseminated to feed both environmental databases and IEC electrotechnical standards. This action will take wave energy beyond the state of the art, building on the partners experience in prior EU projects enabling arrays of reliable devices to achieve the 1GW target set out in the 2030 DG-ENER Offshore Renewable Energy Strategy. Planned engagement will create more public perception, empower and inform policy makers and de-risk larger scale investments to meet the 2050 targets.

Efficient and effective use of offshore renewables is pivotal in the transition of the EU to become a net-zero economy in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. EU-SCORES will unlock the large-scale potential of the roll-out of offshore renewable energy in multi-source parks across different European sea basins through two highly comprehensive and impactful demonstrations: (1) An offshore solar PV system in Belgium co-located with a bottom fixed windfarm and; (2) A wave energy array in Portugal co-located with a floating wind farm. The multi-source demonstrations in EU-SCORES will showcase the benefits of a continuous power output harnessing the complementarity between wind, sun and waves as it leads to a more resilient and stable power system, higher capacity factors and a lower total cost per MWh. These aspects will also improve the business case for the production of green hydrogen within these parks. The full-scale demonstrations will 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 attained by co-using critical electrical infrastructures and exploring advanced operation and maintenance methodologies supported by innovative autonomous systems will further lower the costs per MWh. The involvement of major project developers and utility companies (EDP, EGP, SBE, RWE, EnBW, Eneco, OceanWinds, and Parkwind) will ensure an accelerated path towards commercialisation of these innovative parks. Altogether, through a highly competent, skilled and motivated consortium EU-SCORES will pave the way for bankable multi-source parks including wind, wave and floating solar systems across different European sea basins by 2025, thereby supporting the stability and resilience of the European energy system, while considering sustainability, local stakeholders and existing ecosystems.