Energy from the sea: Project Blue Deal fosters energy transition in the Mediterranean
16/7/2020
The European project 'Blue Deal' kicks off, with the objective of spreading "customized” technologies and solutions to exploit energy from the sea in Mediterranean countries. The project comprises 13 partners, including ENEA and University of Siena (coordinator) from Italy , Spain, Cyprus, Greece, Albania, Croatia and Malta.
Funded with 2.8 million euro by the EU, the project envisages an energy transition which includes energy from waves and tides in an area particularly affected by climate change.
“The Countries overlooking the Mediterranean often do not consider the sea as a resource for economic development, let alone a source of clean energy on which to draw national and regional energy strategies. We must act to promote dissemination of information, technological innovation and entrepreneurial initiatives.
The project 'Blue Deal' wants to pick up these challenges and provide suitable hi-tech and information tools to enable us to increasingly valorise the sea while respecting the environment and benefiting local communities and their development", Maria Vittoria Struglia, project manager and researcher at the ENEA Laboratory of Climate and Impact Modelling, pointed out.
"Blue Deal stems from two previous Interreg Med projects, MAESTRALE and PELAGOS, and has the purpose to profit by their results", project coordinator Simone Bastianoni at the University of Siena said. "We want to prove that it is possible to plan an energy transition which includes blue energy and we will provide practical examples in different places in the Mediterranean area."
Over the next three years, the partners will launch several initiatives in different coastal areas of the Mediterranean, to make known to local communities, administrations and businesses the blue energy potential and its positive effects on the environment, economy and employment.
Among the scheduled events there are business forums, open days, a school competition and Blue Deal testing labs, workshops designed to involve citizens and strengthen the collaboration among research, local authorities and companies, especially SMEs.
All these initiatives have the purpose of overcoming current technical and bureaucratic restrictions on blue energy diffusion and identifying innovative, sustainable and customized solutions for the energy self-sufficiency of small communities, particularly islands, even in the presence of seasonal tourist pressure. The final result of the project will be the definition of a common plan for the diffusion of these technologies in the Mediterranean area.
So far, the first case study addressed by the experts has been the island of Malta, which in 2016 passed a Development Plan which includes marine energy; the partners organized an online event, which allowed to preliminarily test the possibility of actually including blue energy in coastal areas planning.
But it’s not the only one. Italy ranks first in the Mediterranean for public funding to marine energy with almost 5 million euro in 2019; in Spain, the 2011-2020 renewable energy plan illustrates in detail a clean energy policy which aims at obtaining 750 MW of offshore wind energy and 100 MW of wave energy by this year.
Then there is Greece, with 300 offshore wind turbines installed to supply the islands not connected to the national grid with green energy. "In short, even if the gap with Northern Europe countries is still wide, the Mediterranean basin certainly has enormous potential for marine energy exploitation, which it will soon use" Maria Vittoria Struglia concluded.
For more information please contact:
Maria Vittoria Struglia, ENEA -Climate Modelling and Impacts Laboratory– mariavittoria.struglia@enea.it