Overview
Wave Energy Scotland's 6th annual conference took place on 16th November 2023. Once again held in the beautiful National Museum of Scotland, we saw a great turn out of delegates with a packed agenda, kicked off by a keynote address from Gillian Martin, Minister for Energy and the Environment.
The day consisted of five sessions:
1 - The wave sector seascape - this session saw Henry Jeffrey from Policy & Innovation Group present the global context for wave energy, Sue Barr from Simply Blue outline marine sector priorities, and Jay Sheppard from Marine Energy Wales give an update on MEW developments.
2 - Technology development - WES's Peter Dennis gave a technological (and musical!) overview of the WES programme, Simon Grey (AWS Ocean Energy) and Chris Retzler (Mocean Energy) provided an update on their technology milestones, we heard an update on EuropeWave project by WES's Matthew Holland, and WES's Jonathan Hodges gave an overview of next generation flexible wave energy converters.
3 - Innovation funding mechanisms - this session provided an overview of the funding landscape, from how much funding we require by Donald Noble from Policy & Innovation Group, the various different funding mechanisms from Innovate UK's Conall McGinley, the IEA-OES stage gate metric process by WES's Jonathan Hodges and Andrew Smith from Greenbackers UK described the process of investment.
4 - Steps to success, commercialisation & optimisation - this session kicked off with WES Managing Director, Tim Hurst talk about scaling up wave technologies and proof-of-concept, WES's Jonathan Hodges stepped in for Kate Johannesen to provide insight into the OWC floating offshore wind and wave co-location report, and finally Andrea Caio gave a fantastic presentation on the Mocean RSP project.
5 - Development pathways to 2030 - the sessions concluded with EMEC's Lisa MacKenzie providing an overview of early marine energy array projects, Crown Estate Scotland's Caitlin Byers described the process for wave energy leasing (or lack of), and Christoph Harwood from Simply Blue gave an insight into the different options for multi-use of the sea.
You can use the hashtag #WESAC23 to search for any social media updates that happened on the day.
Session one: The wave sector seascape
November 2023
This session gave an overview on the current wave energy sector, with Henry Jeffrey from Policy & Innovation Group presenting the global context for wave energy, Sue Barr from Simply Blue outlining marine sector priorities, and Jay Sheppard from Marine Energy Wales giving an update on MEW developments.
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Session two: Technology development
November 2023
Hear about the latest technology developments from the WES programme, with WES's Peter Dennis giving an overview of the WES programme, Simon Grey (AWS Ocean Energy) and Chris Retzler (Mocean Energy) providing an update on their technology milestones, an update on the EuropeWave project by WES's Matthew Holland, and WES's Jonathan Hodges giving an overview of next generation flexible wave energy converters.
Session three: Innovation funding mechanisms
November 2023
This session explored how much funding the wave sector requires and the investment process and stage gate metrics. Donald Noble from Policy & Innovation Group explored how much funding we require, Innovate UK's Conall McGinley presents their various different funding mechanisms, the IEA-OES stage gate metric process is introduced by WES's Jonathan Hodges and Andrew Smith from Greenbackers UK described the process of investment.
Session four: Steps to success, commercialisation & optimisation
November 2023
These presentations explored the next steps for wave technology including combined wave and floating offshore wind, scaling up and optimising tech and featured the Mocean RSP project.
Session five: Development pathways to 2030
November 2023
This session explored EMEC's plans for a 30MW project, Crown Estate Scotland's leasing process, and options for multi-use of the sea.