Offshore renewable solutions company Sustainable Marine has formed a strategic partnership with Portuguese research firm blueOASIS to develop a range of marine energy solutions that can help unlock ocean energy potential of Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
The partnership was announced on the back of this year’s UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, where the Global Ocean Energy Alliance (GLOEA) was launched.
The partners plan to combine their experience in research and development and deliver modular marine energy systems in environments with limited infrastructure. This will be done with the aim of developing solutions that can harvest energy from a variety of renewable energy sources.
This in turn is hoped to support initiatives like GLOEA to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals to SIDS.
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According to Sustainable Marine, energy accounts for the highest share of imports to SIDS, which are heavily dependent on fossil fuel imports for electricity generation and transport.
However, there is a significant opportunity in their vast ocean territories and Exclusive Economic Zones, which represent 30% of all oceans and seas.
Sustainable Marine CEO Jason Hayman said if effectively harnessed, ocean energy will spur economic diversification, deliver energy resilience and provide a clean alternative to displace diesel-fuelled energy generation, enabling the development of truly sustainable blue economies within SIDS’ vast ocean jurisdictions.
Said Mr Hayman: “While there is huge opportunity to innovate across the blue economy sector at large, ocean energy offers a unique long-term solution to dramatically accelerate and sustain the energy transition. The challenge is to develop technology solutions that are relevant for SIDS and coastal developing countries, which are currently experiencing a savage economic shock due the rapidly rising cost of diesel.
“Our latest project in Canada, which recently started delivering energy to the local electricity grid, is located in a channel between two islands and was designed to be assembled and launched at a small local shipyard close to the site. These types of systems are ideal for island and coastal countries as they can be built, launched, installed and maintained using local infrastructure with capacity easily scaled-up as required through the deployment of multiple systems”.
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By 2030 the blue economy is expected to contribute more than $3 trillion to the economy, creating more than 40 million jobs. However, the sector requires innovation across fisheries, aquaculture, desalination, freshwater, biotechnology, ocean intelligence, shipping and port services.
“The UN Ocean Conference provided the perfect backdrop to launch our partnership with Sustainable Marine, with new global initiatives like GLOEA kickstarting a new chapter in global ocean action,” said blueOASIS CEO Guilherme Vaz.
“Together we will redouble our efforts to deliver progressive solutions for the Blue Economy sector at large, working in harmony with nature. The focus in this particular SIDS context is to scale down the existing complex and expensive structures and make them affordable. We have to democratise renewable energy, to make it accessible to smaller economies with minimal supporting infrastructure.”
