International Wave Energy Markets and Opportunities

International Distribution of Wave Power Potential

On a European level, for wave energy the total practical offshore resource has been estimated to be in order of 320 GW installed capacity.

Conversion of the wave resource could supply a substantial part of the electrical energy demand of several countries, in Europe, particularly Ireland, Portugal and Spain. The electricity demand on Islands in remote areas could entirely be met by converting a small fraction of the available resource.

Ireland has set targets of 75MW by 2012 and 500MW by 2020 from wave and OceanEnergy is well positioned to deliver these targets and other countries have already established Ocean Energy delivery targets.

The decision by the EU Council of ministers of March 9th, 2007, sets a binding target of 20% from renewables by 2020. This ambitious target is challenging given that to date, only 6,5% of The EU energy supply comes from renewable energy sources. However, it is absolutely necessary to meet the target if the EU wants to secure its energy supply and combat global warming by producing less greenhouse-gas emissions. Ocean energy can contribute significantly to the energy mix, tackling these two major challenges the EU is facing. The United States appears set to follow with a multi billion investment in renewables over the forthcoming term.