Key principles of the Green Deal are to prioritise energy efficiency, develop a power sector based largely on renewable resources, to secure an affordable EU energy supply and to have a fully integrated, interconnected digitalised EU energy market. However, renewable energy scale up in Europe faces increasing resistance due to limitations in applicable land area and the willingness of local communities to have wind or solar parks close by. One possibility to resolve this issue is the usage of offshore space. Blue renewable energy sources such as offshore (floating) wind, floating solar (FPV), waves, tides and currents have a high and still unused potential to be explored. This is of particular importance in view of the current energy crisis and changing energy policy. For all offshore technologies, lengthy and expensive MetOcean, geophysical and environmental campaigns are needed, which slow down the upscaling of offshore renewables. The proposed Blue Energy Offshore Installation Accelerator (BLUE-X) will contribute to the Green Deal objectives and its related policies, in particular with regard to increasing the EU’s climate ambition for 2030 and 2050, supplying clean, affordable and secure energy, mitigating natural hazards and preserving and restoring ecosystems and biodiversity. BLUE-X is an innovative Copernicus based solution for optimising and accelerating decision making for blue renewable energy projects in all phases, from planning to construction, operation and decommissioning. The heart of this solution is a cloud-based IT network of relevant Earth observation and MetOcean data streams that are combined in decision support tools for each phase. As a result, the planning and construction phase can be significantly optimised, thereby reducing costs, and required time to full operation. BLUE-X will be available and showcased for all key offshore energy domains for some of the most important European offshore projects to date but can be applied anywhere.

Europe is currently in a transition away from its dependency on Russian gas towards a fully renewable, reliable, and low-cost energy system by 2050. To achieve this target, large-scale renewable energy projects are essential. However, the transition is limited by several factors such as onshore space availability to deploy GW-scale projects, supply chain disruptions, and concerns from various stakeholders around visual pollution and space use. Offshore floating PV (OFPV) can deliver hundreds of GWs in Europe by 2050 while resolving above challenges. In areas with a fast-expanding offshore wind sector (e.g. North Sea), OFPV can be combined with wind inside multi-source farms. This enables the extraction of up to 9x more energy per km2 and better utilization of the infrastructure due to 10-20% more full-load hours, while leaving space for other stakeholders as fewer wind parks and electrical infrastructure are needed for the same amount of electricity production. In parts of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea with low wind resources, also stand-alone OFPV can help to achieve high penetration of renewable energy. Nautical SUNRISE will remove the last barriers of OFPV to deliver these benefits. A 5 MW grid-connected, multi-year offshore demonstration of a highly competitive OFPV system and its components inside a commercial wind farm will provide the trust needed for the upscaling of the technology. Prior to the demonstration, its technical reliability will be validated in the most extreme conditions through laboratory measurements, wave-wind tank tests, and modelling studies. The cost reduction achieved through design improvements will be quantified in concrete business cases and should enable an LCOE of <148 €/MWh, making OFPV financially viable. Additionally, the measurement campaign at the OFPV demonstration, large-scale environmental modelling, and life-cycle assessment including circularity will help to understand the overall effect on the environment.

The MARINERG-i Distributed Research Infrastructure (DRI) unites and consolidates the EU Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) testing facilities to accelerate development and realise potential of this sector. The world is current undergoing a significant shift in all aspects of energy supply and the vast potential of ORE is being realised and is an intrinsic part of future plans. Through the acceleration of technology development MARINERG-i will provide significant support to achieving the EU Green Deal targets. This will strengthen European scientific and engineering expertise as well as foster innovation in ORE technologies. By consolidating investment in infrastructure and expertise across Europe, MARINERG-i will offer the best quality service and will act as a magnet to attract further funding. Following a successful application, MARINERG-i is one of 11 new Research Infrastructures to be added to the ESFRI 2021 roadmap. The ESFRI European Roadmap for Research Infrastructures, stimulates the implementation of these facilities and arguably contains the best European science facilities based on a thorough evaluation and selection procedure. With Ireland as the lead country MARINERG-i is currently also supported by Belgium, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom, with considerable support from institutions within France, the Netherlands, Italy, Norway and Germany. The team are now embarking on a preparatory phase, establishing the legal, governance, scientific and business components required to implement the MARINERG-i DRI.

Efficient and effective use of offshore renewables is pivotal in the transition of the EU to become a net-zero economy in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. EU-SCORES will unlock the large-scale potential of the roll-out of offshore renewable energy in multi-source parks across different European sea basins through two highly comprehensive and impactful demonstrations: (1) An offshore solar PV system in Belgium co-located with a bottom fixed windfarm and; (2) A wave energy array in Portugal co-located with a floating wind farm. The multi-source demonstrations in EU-SCORES will showcase the benefits of a continuous power output harnessing the complementarity between wind, sun and waves as it leads to a more resilient and stable power system, higher capacity factors and a lower total cost per MWh. These aspects will also improve the business case for the production of green hydrogen within these parks. The full-scale demonstrations will prove how the increased power output and capacity installed per km2 will reduce the amount of marine space needed, thereby leaving more space for aquaculture, fisheries, shipping routes and environmentally protected zones. Additional benefits attained by co-using critical electrical infrastructures and exploring advanced operation and maintenance methodologies supported by innovative autonomous systems will further lower the costs per MWh. The involvement of major project developers and utility companies (EDP, EGP, SBE, RWE, EnBW, Eneco, OceanWinds, and Parkwind) will ensure an accelerated path towards commercialisation of these innovative parks. Altogether, through a highly competent, skilled and motivated consortium EU-SCORES will pave the way for bankable multi-source parks including wind, wave and floating solar systems across different European sea basins by 2025, thereby supporting the stability and resilience of the European energy system, while considering sustainability, local stakeholders and existing ecosystems.

Integrating activities planned under MaRINET 2 build upon the achievements of the advanced community created in MaRINET FP7. MaRINET 2 will ensure the continued integration and enhancement of all leading European research infrastructure and facilities specialising in research, development and testing of offshore renewable energy systems including electrical sub systems and grid integration through a range of TRLs (1-7). MaRINET FP7 proved the added value of uniting these facilities, and substantially improving their capability as a community of practice to deliver consistent testing services ensuring, quantifiable, stepwise innovation and progress in the development of devices and key components, and identifying critical areas for further technical investigation and enhancement. Whilst activities proposed under MaRINET 2 will follow the same formula, balancing networking/ joint research/ and transnational access, the consortium and scope of work is expanded to include xx partners in xx countries with xx facilities. The e-infrastructure programme fills a strategic gap. Taking stock of existing capacities for data management/sharing; it addresses user requirements and demonstrates the operation of a new system based on standards and tools adapted from the SeaDataNet infrastructure. The European Commission and member states recognise offshore renewable energy as an important source of clean energy that can: generate economic growth and employment; increase energy security; and boost competitiveness and technological innovation. The realisation of this potential depends on the accelerated development, deployment and grid integration of reliable, efficient technologies for harvesting offshore renewable energy, which in turn requires robust and exhaustive testing in dedicated facilities operated by practitioners with specialised expertise. MaRINET 2 provides this ecosystem, and is pre-eminently suited to fostering the next generation of offshore renewable energy devices.