Last week, our Managing Director, Vincent Mc Cormack was warmly welcomed back to the IFREMER testing facility located in Boulogne-Sur-Mer, France. The testing in the IFREMER tank, scheduled for 1 week in September this year, has been funded through the MaRINET2 programme. The results of this testing will then feed into a separate Marine Energy Alliance (MEA) funded project to develop a comprehensive test programme and feasibility study for a larger 250kW, submerged, tidal device using the GKinetic concept.
Overall, both projects address the feasibility of a larger, tidal device from a technical perspective as well as commercial. While the development of smaller scale devices (up to 100kW) have been progressed to a comfortable TRL 7 through the H2020 project led by DesignPro Renewables, development of larger turbines specifically for tidal applications is still at early TRL levels.
The final details and suppliers that will be contributing to the project are being negotiated and confirmed over the next few weeks. Following the visit to IFREMER, plans are now in place for GKinetic to take a small-scale test model for a weeks testing in September this year and in line with this a commercial study will be developed.
MaRINET2 Funding
MaRINET2 is a €10.5 million project which includes 39 organisations representing some of the top offshore renewable energy testing facilities in Europe and globally. The project depends on strong international ties across Europe and draws on the expertise and participation of 13 countries.
MARINET2 expands on the success of its predecessor with an even greater number and variety of testing facilities across offshore wind, wave, tidal current, electrical and environmental/cross-cutting sectors. The project not only aims to provide greater access to testing infrastructures across Europe, but also is driven to improve the quality of testing internationally through standardisation of testing and staff exchange programmes.
The MaRINET2 project will run in parallel to the MaREI, UCC coordinated EU H2020 MARINERG-i project which aims to develop a business plan to put this international network of infrastructures on the European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) roadmap.
The 4th Call for applications to MaRINET2 for free-of-charge Transnational Access opens on August 15th 2019. Full details can be found on the project’s website here: http://www.marinet2.eu/.
Marine Energy Alliance Funding
The Marine Energy Alliance (MEA) is a 4 year European Territorial Cooperation project running from May 2018 to May 2022. The project has a total budget of €6 million and is financially supported by Interreg North West Europe, who provides €3.6 million of ERDF funding. The aim of MEA is to progress the technical and commercial maturity level of early-stage (TRL 3 – 4) marine energy technology companies with the overall goal of reducing the risk of device failure in subsequent demonstration phases.
Via MEA, selected marine energy technology companies are able to receive a suite of tailored expert services that will enable them to realise their ambitions and, more broadly, contribute to the coherent growth of the marine energy industry in general.
Through participation in MEA, companies like GKinetic can gain access to the project partners’ world-leading expertise in marine energy development. Awarded companies will have the chance to work closely together with a transnational team of marine energy experts on both the technical advancement of their technology, as well as the development of their commercial strategy and business plans. Each service offer is intended to put the company’s technology and business firmly on the road towards successful commercialisation.
GKinetic looks forward to working with the team at IFREMER again and sharing the full details of both the MaRINET2 and MEA projects once finalised.