Wales Becomes Lead Partners of Ocean Energy Europe to Help Build a New Industrial Sector

The Welsh Government has made formal ties with Ocean Energy Europe (OEE) to facilitate structured engagement and collaboration. The move is evidence of the strategic importance of Wales in the ocean energy sector as both an early market and a center of technology excellence.

Europe is in need of new industrial success stories, and ocean energy can be one of them. Europe’s ocean energy industry plans to deploy 100GW of capacity by 2050, generating significant economic activity for a pan-European supply chain and 400 000 jobs across Europe. To get there, collaboration between the industry and leading regions such as Wales is key.

The announcement was made at the Ocean Energy Europe 2016 Conference & Exhibition.

Welsh Government Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure Ken Skates said: “Supporting the development of marine energy is one of our priorities as we want Wales to become a world leader in this field. Wales is already an established test bed for a range of exciting and highly innovative sustainable marine energy projects around our coast that have been supported with funding from Welsh Government and the EU and have huge potential.

“Joining OEE provides us with a great platform to support this growing sector and to promote the work underway in Wales. It will help us highlight the opportunities these projects present and to maximize the potential benefits for the Welsh Economy.”

“We are very happy to have Wales join OEE. With an excellent ocean energy resource and world-leading technology, Wales will be one of the key early markets where Europe’s ocean energy industry will develop. We look forward to working more closely with the Welsh government in building these markets and creating a new manufacturing industry in Europe,” said Rémi Gruet, CEO of Ocean Energy Europe.