University College Cork has invested €10.5 million in EU funding in a marine renewable energy project, the second phase of the funding for the initiative.
Marinet2 is a transnational project designed to help speed up the development of offshore renewable energy technologies and infrastructure, facilitating access to test facilities in 13 European countries.
It has 39 partners ranging from research centres to organisations that are working to progress offshore renewable energy technologies such as wave, tidal and offshore-wind.
UCC is co-ordinating the project through MaREI, the Centre for Marine and Renewable Energy. Development companies, start-ups and researchers will be able to get access to marine energy experts and the world’s leading wave, tidal and offshore-wind test facilities through the network.
Collaboration
Among the Irish partners are SmartBay Ireland, National University of Ireland, Galway and the University of Limerick.
“Marinet2 is a model for success and demonstrates what we can achieve in terms of collaboration and sharing knowledge transnationally,” said Dr Jimmy Murphy, co-ordinator of Marinet2.
"It will reduce the risk and financial burden of technology development in the offshore renewable energy sector and complement the existing national SEAI funding for these developers to test in Ireland, eg at the Lir National Ocean Test Facilities, funded by SEAI and Science Foundation Ireland. "
