Carnegie Technologies Spain (CTS) has been selected to receive a €1,171,800 grant as part of the first competitive call of the RENMARINAS DEMOS Program, which funds marine renewable energy projects in Spain.
Carnegie Clean Energy has already been chosen to construct and operate the CETO wave energy converter at the Biscay Marine Energy Platform (BiMEP), an offshore testing site in Bilbao, in 2025. The project is expected to demonstrate the technical and commercial viability of the technology for large-scale implementation. The RENMARINAS DEMOS grant will enable the Company to enhance the CETO deployment with additional stakeholders and enable the project to meet enhanced technical and commercial objectives to help the technology reach commercialization.
Wave energy devices aim to capture the power of ocean waves, the single largest unused renewable energy source on the planet. The total theoretical wave energy resource worldwide stands at an 30,000 TWh/year. Wave energy is extremely dense and highly predictable, making it easy for grid operators to incorporate. The EU aims to have at least 42.5% of renewable energy by 2030. The objective for ocean energy is to have at least 1 GW of installed capacity by 2030 and 40 GW by 2050.
The EuropeWave PCP Programme, focused on accelerating wave energy development across Europe, was the initial catalyst for the CETO deployment, providing €3.75 million for Phase 3 of the EuropeWave Programme. The Basque Energy Agency’s ACHIEVE+ initiative is providing €2.1 million, with an emphasis on supporting local involvement and driving key technological advancements.
The grant funding supports the Company’s AGUAMARINA Project (Avances en la Generación Undimotriz Adaptada al entorno Marino) and provides for:
- An Extended CETO Operational Period: ACHIEVE funds the first year of operations and AGUAMARINA will fund a second year of operations.
- Enhanced Wave Prediction Capabilities: The advanced control capability of CETO is enabled by a wave predictor able to forecast the waves impacting the device with a high accuracy at a short prediction horizon. Planned wave prediction activities will be enhanced.
- Local Infrastructure: Development of new infrastructures for the test site such as foundations that will be used for the anchoring of the CETO device and a new dynamic electrical cable to connect the CETO device to the existing electrical infrastructure at BiMEP.
- Local Knowledge: Collaboration with BiMEP to perform environmental surveys and deliver knowledge dissemination activity through the life of the project.
- Local Operations and Maintenance: Collaboration with BiMEP during the two years of deployment of the CETO device around operations and maintenance of wave energy.
The RENMARINAS-DEMOS program follows the main strategic lines of action identified in the recent Roadmap for the development of offshore wind and marine energy in Spain, targeting 40-60 MW of marine energy deployment by 2030, and is supported by NextGenerationEU funds via the Spanish Plan de Recuperación, Transformación y Resiliencia (Plan for Recovery, Transformation and Resilience).
