H2020 funds offshore energy rules evaluation

Academics in Scotland have been awarded a Horizon 2020 grant to investigate ways to streamline regulations affecting the offshore energy projects.

Researchers leading the project at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen have received €1.4m of funding from the European Commission. The project team will evaluate environmental requirements associated with consents for offshore wind, wave and tidal projects.

Speaking about the upcoming evaluation, Professor David Gray said: “Offshore energy projects have the potential to make a significant contribution to our energy security. However, they are not being brought on stream as quickly as hoped. Part of the problem is the time and costs involved in gaining environmental approval.”

RGU are leading the RiCORE project on behalf of the Offshore Renewables Institute, a collaboration between Robert Gordon University and the Universities of Dundee and Aberdeen. The project consortium also includes partners in Ireland, Spain, Portugal and France.

Adding her thoughts, Dr Teresa Simas from WavEC in Portugal explained: “For many large projects there will always be a need to collect a lot of data. However, we think we can speed the process up for smaller schemes in marine zones that are less vulnerable. The key is to be able to identify schemes that are relatively low risk.”

The investigation will run until 30 June 2016.