Companhia da Energia Oceânica integrates platform for offshore demonstrations in Europe

Companhia da Energia Oceânica (CEO) – a company owned by INESC TEC and WavEC Offshore Renewables – is part of a new platform for offshore demonstrations in Europe, called High Power Test Sites (HiPoTeSis). In Portugal, CEO is the owner of the Marine Renewable Energy testing platform, at Aguçadoura; the company aims to present the first wave park in the world, located in Póvoa de Varzim (northern Portugal).

The HiPoTeSis initiative is a cooperation platform for five demonstration sites in Europe, which aims to safeguard the interests of offshore testing at European level. In addition to the CEO, the other four sites are in Spain (through the Biscay Marine Energy Platform and the Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands), France (through the OPEN-C Foundation) and Norway (represented by Mari Energi Testcentre).

“This alliance aims to raise the European Commission’s awareness of the key role that renewable energy testing sites play in achieving Europe’s ocean-related targets and ambitions. In addition, and considering the technological advances over recent years, European Commission must rethink the support to address the major investments that must be made to ensure the updating of these infrastructures”, explained Carlos Pinho, CEO of the Companhia de Energia Oceânica.

In this sense, HiPoTeSis participated in the ETIPWinds public workshop in Brussels in late June. The goal was to define the messages of ETIPWind for the newly elected EU policy-makers, like the new members of the European Commission and the European Parliament. ETIPWind is a platform for European entities in the wind power sector to identify research, development and innovation (R&D&I) priorities and promote breakthrough innovations to EU policy-makers. In addition, ETIPWind is also crucial to the design of calls for proposals in the field of offshore wind energy under the Horizon Europe programme.

“Test centres play a vital role in creating a competitive European industry and ensuring Europe’s leadership in the field of offshore energy,” said Izan Le Crom, HiPoTeSis leader and Director of Local Development for the French demonstrator. “That’s why we’re advocating for the need for more testing sites”, he mentioned.