AWE’s Product Quality and Certification Manager Tuula Mäki was invited to speak at this year’s International Conference of Ocean Energy, ICOE, held at Cherbourg, France 12-14 June. She gave a presentation on WaveRoller sea trials, the certification process and the MegaRoller project.
Mäki gave her presentation at one of the conference’s plenary sessions, to which she was chosen to represent one of the leading ocean energy developers amongst the companies participating in the conference.
– My presentation was a part of the Flagship from International Projects plenary and included information on the successful sea trials done with the WaveRoller as well as the device’s certification process. We are the world leader in certified ocean energy technology and as such have been a pioneer and a part of defining the certification process for future players as well, Mäki describes.
The presentation briefly touched on the MegaRoller, a Horizon2020 funded project aiming to create a Power Take-Off unit for a 1MW wave energy converter.
– As the project has just started it was a brief preview on what’s to come in the next three years of the project’s duration.
This was not Mäki’s first appearance on the ICOE stage. She last gave a presentation at the 2016 conference.
– It was quite satisfying to give updates on the developments made in the past two years, since some of the subjects discussed were in connection to my last speech.
Promising progress in the sector
Mäki thinks the yearly conference is important to the credibility of the ocean energy sector, as it provides a glimpse into the industry’s current situation and offers information to the stakeholders interested in ocean energy companies.
– The presentations and speeches, not to mention networking opportunities, are a fertile ground for extracting ideas and information to both the business and technology aspects of the industry, Mäki says.
Commercialization strategies are a hot topic and opinions vary between different developers. One view in the industry is clear: ocean energy technology is taking leaps ahead and faith in the industry seems to be strong.
– In the tidal energy sector devices have been installed and records broken. In the last year more electricity has been produced with tidal energy devices than in that sector’s history all together.
– The significance of ICOE will surely persist, but it is expected that the topics and content of the conference will evolve along with the commercialization of the industry, Mäki concludes.
