The European Commission and 14 R&D actors from various European countries established the European Thematic Network on Wave Energy, or Wave Net, in 2000. Its task was to address important scientific, technical and economic aspects in wave energy conversion.
A full technical report, over 500 pages in length not including appendices, and containing detailed results of the work carried out, has also been published. This is available in downloadable form on the Wave Net web site: http://www.wave-energy.net as a single document and individual chapters.
The different workgroups in the network have carried out a series of tasks under the following headings:
- Network Co-ordination & Support.
- Co-operation With Power Industry.
- Social, Planning and Environmental Impact.
- Financing & Economic Issues.
- R&D on Wave Energy Devices.
- Generic Technologies.
- Promotion of Wave Energy.
These tasks have produced a variety of outputs, which have been disseminated via conferences and a web-site developed in the course of the project, to relevant targets groups such as developers, operators, public bodies, financiers, planners, etc. The results of the activities are:
- Co-operation with Power Industry
The objectives of this task were to promote co-operation with the electrical power industry and to build on the experience gained in electrical generation and transmission of other relevant industries (e.g. wind).
- Social & Environmental Impact, Planning Considerations
The aims of this task were to identify the barriers (planning, legal, structural and environmental) to the development of wave energy, together with the social and environmental benefits (e.g. employment issues, emissions reductions) arising from expected deployment of wave energy schemes, leading to the development of recommendations and guidelines for such deployment.
- Financial & Economic Issues
This task has produced the following outputs:
-- An evaluation of the generating costs of the leading devices to assist in establishing credibility of wave energy as a generation source.
-- An evaluation of the rates of return that wave energy devices will have to produce in order to attract private-sector finance.
-- An estimate of the environmental external costs of wave energy and compare them with those of conventional energy generation.
- Research & development
This has collated, reviewed and evaluated material from current and past EU funded projects, national programmes and industrial projects. Key research priorities were identified and a strategy was developed.
- Generic technologies
This task aimed to collate existing knowledge on areas of "generic technology" that is common to most ocean energy devices, for example control systems, power take off and so on.
- Promotion of Wave Energy
This task aimed to promote wave energy as a renewable source of energy within the public and a range of institutions and organisations involved in wave energy developments, as electrical power companies, offshore industries, research institutions, financial bodies, governmental offices etc.