Study finds 70 GW of ocean energy potential in Europe

The European EVOLVE project has identified close to 60 GW of practically viable wave energy and 10 GW of tidal stream energy off Great Britain, Ireland and Portugal.

The two-year project was led by Aquatera, with assistance from WavEC Offshore Renewables, Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE), and the University of Edinburgh, as well as CorPower Ocean and Orbital Marine Power. EVOLVE has presented solid data to support the acceleration of ocean energy in the future energy system of Europe. The study indicated ocean energy resources in UK of 34.8 GW, Ireland of 18.8 GW, and Portugal of 15.5 GW.

Increases in ocean energy consistently reduce overall system dispatch costs, including the cost of delivered fuel and other variable operation and maintenance expenses, as well as annual carbon emissions. These system benefits are the result of offsetting the availability of ocean energy with other renewables, such as wind and solar.