Offshore projects, including oil spill response and observation systems, have been included in the European Union's€80 billion research and innovation program Horizon 2020.
Horizon 2020 is a challege-based research and innovation program run by the European Research Council (ERC). It will allocate more than €15 billion in funding over the first two years, 2014-2015. The program's aim is to stabilize Europe's financial and economic system while taking measures to create economic opportunities.
The European Commission (EC) issued the first calls for funding in a memo from Brussels on Dec. 11, detailing 12 focus areas of research. Offshore projects fall under "Blue growth: unlocking the potential of seas and oceans," which has a 2014 budget of €100 million (US$136 million).
The EU memo says: "The Blue Growth economy in the EU is expected to grow to seven million people employed by 2020. Actions in this area will be in line with the EU Blue Growth Strategy and relevant EU policies, as well as provide international cooperation opportunities, in particular for Atlantic Ocean research. The calls in this area invite, for example, proposals on Atlantic observation systems, an integrated response capacity to oil spills and marine pollution, climate change impacts on fisheries and aquaculture and ocean literacy."
Wind projects
The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) says the total offshore capacity in Europe stands at 6040 MW in 58 wind farms across ten countries - up from 4336 MW, in June 2012. Twenty-one offshore wind farms are now under construction or in preparation, with a total capacity of 5694 MW.
At an EWEA seminar in Brussels, after the Horizon 2020 call for projects,Vilma Radvilaite, EWEA’s EU budget and research advisor, said: “The recently agreed Horizon 2020 program offers a budget of about €5.9 billion for non-nuclear energy projects in the next seven years. It will be a key EU program providing financial support to wind energy technology development by 2020.”
Last week, the EWEA announced that 277 offshore wind turbines were grid-connected in Europe in July-Dec 2013, adding more than twice the capacity installed during the same period in 2012.
However, it said that new project financing has decreased, due to regulatory uncertainty in key offshore markets including Germany and the UK.
The 277 newly added offshore wind turbines had a combined capacity of 1045 MW, compared to 132 turbines of 23.2 MW in the same period a year earlier.
The new turbines were connected at seven wind farms: Thornton Bank (Belgium), Gunfleet Sands 3 (UK), Lincs (UK), London Array (UK), Teesside (UK), Anholt (Denmark) and Bard Offshore 1 (Germany).
In addition to the turbines that were connected, another 254 were built and 268 foundations were installed.
EWEA’s policy director Justin Wilkes, stressed the importance for governments to set new, binding renewable targets for 2030.
Regulatory uncertainty is vexing in Britain, the world's leading offshore wind market, and in Germany, which launched its Energiewende program and shuttered eight nuclear power plants following the 2011 disaster at Fukushima, Japan. Germany's remaining nuclear power plants will be shut down by 2022. The country wants to move away from nuclear and fossil fuels, but is using coal in the interim. One new coal-burning power plant is operational, and 10 more have been approved. Analysts say the country needs to boost renewable energy programs to succeed.
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