The breakthrough technology solutions proposed within WETFEET to overcome the stagnation in the development of wave energy represent new and innovative ideas that are expected to provide a new impetus to technology development within the sector. As above mentioned, although these breakthroughs were developed and tested in laboratory via the integration into specific WEC concepts (the OWC and the Symphony), they are expected to be of broad application to several other concepts. The new ideas that were launched by the project will ultimately contribute to improved and less varied WEC designs.
The final configurations of the new technology solutions that will most efficiently address the current wave energy constraints and render it a valid and attractive contribution to the energy challenge in Europe and worldwide will emerge from WETFEET’s outcomes. Thanks to the stakeholders’ engagement actively sought by the consortium, the project’s results are expected to reach the energy industry at large and help providing the players with the necessary confidence to frame wave energy technology as a strategic choice to be integrated in the future energy system. It has been agreed by the consortium that, as soon as the results and the knowledge gathered from the project have been conveniently summed up and reported, a joint industry and academia workshop, open to the general audience, industry players (including supply chain), academia and other interested actors, should be organized shortly after the end of the project to present WETFEET’s results and the most promising breakthrough components and to foresee their contribution and integration into the future wave energy market. This workshop will be organized still within 2018, and the respective expenses will be covered by the coordinator’s and other consortium members’ own funds.
It is anticipated that future research focus will naturally evolve towards those breakthrough technology solutions that have proven and are proving to be more promising in tackling the related constraint. The project was designed to ensure that the new solutions did not bring out new unsolved issues in terms of technical, economic, financial, environmental, policy, regulatory and societal aspects, and that they were developed as much as possible without loss of generality, to guarantee its applicability to other types of WEC. Nonetheless, it should be noted that the scope of WETFEET was to identify/characterize the wave energy sector challenges, propose solutions and initiate its development from TRL 2 to TRL 3/4. Further development of the breakthrough features that will prove to effectively work and of the detailed processes associated to its operation is beyond the scope of the project and should be pursued by the consortium and by technology developers in the aftermath of WETFEET.
