Abstract
Ocean Energy Systems (OES) is the short name for the Technology Collaboration Programme on Ocean Energy Systemsunder the International Energy Agency (IEA).
This Annual Report presents an overview of progress made by the OES, including summaries of new, ongoing and recent projects, as well as updated country reviews prepared by the Delegates.
Interest and outreach for new membership within OES continued in 2018. Australia re-joined the OES in August and the Commonwealth Scientific, and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) signed the Implementing Agreement on behalf of the Australian Government.
The OES is always looking for new members across the globe, and key representatives from potential new member countries are encouraged to attend meetings as Observers.
The OES has 25 members, which provide a broad international base of information, sharing experience and knowledge and further a diversified representation of interests: members are from governmental departments, utilities, universities and research organizations, energy agencies and industry associations. This is one of the benefits of joining OES: participants gain an international perspective on ocean energy issues, opportunities and present challenges.
The OES international co-operation facilitates:
• Securing access to advanced R&D teams in the participating countries;
• Developing a harmonized set of measures and testing protocols for the testing of prototypes;
• Reducing national costs by collaborating internationally;
• Creating valuable international contacts between government, industry and science;
• Sharing information and networking.
This Executive Summary provides a brief summary of the OES Annual Report for the year 2018. It synthesizes the main achievements in the OES collaborative activities and presents relevant policies, R&D activities and deployments in the water by each OES member country. It also includes, as in previous years, an interview on a specific topic, this year about performance metrics on ocean energy: Two experts from Wave Energy Scotland (WES) and from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) are invited to give their views on this topic based on the programmes being run by WES and by the Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) within DOE where a formalized technology evaluation or stage-gate process is applied to measure the success of the technology and its development.
OES has a close link with the International Conference on Ocean Energy (ICOE), held every two years, and leads a competitive process to select host country teams. In 2018, the 7th edition of ICOE was held in France gathering 200 exhibitors and more than 3500 visitors from 36 countries. In this report, OES also interviews the past and current Chair (2020) of the ICOE to hear about the benefits of this event for the international ocean energy industry