The Future of Ocean Renewable Energy: Challenges and Opportunities
February 28, 2025
By Bernardo Silva, manager at INESC TEC
This interview was conducted with Bernardo Silva, manager at INESC TEC, as part of the Blue Compass project, promoted by the Blue Hub Portugal Network, based
on insights from the Blue Hub Dealroom, the main digital matchmaking platform for blue innovation.
Is the ocean renewable energy sector evolving at the pace required to meet energy and climate goals? What is still missing?
First of all, it is necessary to distinguish between the energy sources, namely offshore wind, wave energy, tidal energy, and ocean solar energy.
Offshore wind energy is at a commercial maturity stage, having even been proven on national territory. However, wave energy, tidal energy, and ocean solar energy are at a lower level of technological maturity.
To meet the goals, we must have offshore energy systems that provide more renewable energy, ideally at a lower levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), which may require using various energy sources, sharing the use of infrastructure for interconnection with the land grid, which represents a significant cost.
Therefore, some further development is needed to meet the goals.
Nonetheless, investment in offshore wind with acceptable LCOE could significantly help increase the penetration of renewable sources into the electrical system and create the necessary infrastructure for the future interconnection of other ocean energy sources.
What technical challenges (still) limit the commercial viability of new ocean renewable energy technologies?
New technologies must be tested, and for that, a sort of "green light" for testing is necessary, allowing quick access and interconnection to the electrical grids.
On the other hand, industrial development is important to support all activities and, later, the manufacturing of components that will integrate new technologies at the commercial stage.
Regarding grid connection issues, further studies are still needed on the future of new substations that will allow the interconnection of generator sets to the land infrastructure, reducing the number of long underwater cable circuits.
Additionally, the interconnection between devices of different technologies in a plug-and-play manner should be the focus of R&D, exploring the concept of
a "T-connector," a large-scale, ocean-proof "triple plug."
What innovations (e.g., materials, digitalization, or artificial intelligence) have the potential to transform ocean technologies?
Ocean energies have high installation and maintenance costs. However, innovation could reduce these costs through the adoption of new technologies for monitoring and maintenance, allowing process optimization and access to digital twin models for assessing the health index of various components.
In this regard, autonomous robotics will play a crucial role in inspection and data collection tasks. On the other hand, data analysis and digitalization of different systems will enable the adoption of mathematical models that can identify anomalies as well as define the optimal time window for maintenance tasks.
Finally, artificial intelligence models could be trained to predict resources and detect extreme phenomena, allowing for the adoption of preventive protection strategies for energy production assets.
Furthermore, all the technology could also increase knowledge about the surrounding marine life, creating databases for future studies, as it will be based on a
strong network of sensors.
Fórum Oceano is the managing entity of the Portuguese Sea Cluster, certified and recognised by the Ministry of Economy and the Sea, the Ministry of National Defence and the Ministry of Planning and Infrastructure.
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