PROSPER 2030

Procurement-based de-Risking Of wave energy Scale-up for Public fundERs by 2030

The Vision – Bringing wave energy to commercial-scale with innovative procurement

PROSPER 2030 is a proposed successor to the current EuropeWave project. It is the next stage of wave energy development and will bring several devices from Stage 3 to Stage 4 of the IEA-OES’s ‘International Evaluation and Guidance Framework for Ocean Energy Technology’.

In practice, this means that PROSPER 2030 will advance wave energy converter systems that have been proven at scale in a real sea environment to a point where they are ready for commercial exploitation.

PROSPER 2030 will be open to all wave developers who meet the eligibility criteria. Developers do NOT need to have participated in EuropeWave.

Just like EuropeWave, it will provide an established structure for public authorities to bring wave energy technology to commercial readiness, based on a competitive procurement procedure, clear performance metrics, and international collaboration.

Benefits

The ‘EuropeWave’ approach significantly de-risks technology development for public authorities, thanks to:

• An established procurement approach, as used by the Basque Energy Agency, Wave Energy Scotland and the European Commission via the EuropeWave project.

• A competitive process to ensure selection of the most proven & promising developers/ technologies.

• Clear performance metrics agreed between participating authorities – to allow identification of progress and effective management of the process.

• Sharing of costs between public authorities.

• Prior and ongoing work of EuropeWave partners to advance several wave technologies to a point from which they can be developed for commercial exploitation.

How the Objective will be Achieved

Participating public authorities will procure wave energy technologies that are capable of generating a minimum specified energy yield within a designated timeframe. The deployments will take place at designated sites within the territories of participating authorities.

During the deployment the technologies must demonstrate that they have met key Stage 4 metrics within each of the 9 Evaluation Areas identified in the IEA-OES’s Framework.

Eligibility criteria will ensure that the selected wave energy converter technologies have already met key Stage 3 metrics from the same framework – i.e. only proven technologies will be selected.

Timeline

EuropeWave partners are engaging with other interested public authorities across Europe. This work is to agree a high-level concept for PROSPER 2030 and the initial details of how the programme will operate.

To ensure an uninterrupted transition from EuropeWave, a funding call for PROSPER 2030 would need to be included in the 2025 Horizon Europe Work Programme.

Interested public authorities will then respond to this call with detailed submission on PROSPER 2030 and will commit their own funding contribution.

This would allow PROSPER 2030 to begin in mid/late 2026.

It is anticipated that the resulting wave devices would enter the water in the late 2020s.

Interested to Learn More?

Contact:

• Tim Hurst, Wave Energy Scotland – tim.hurst@waveenergyscotland.co.uk

• Endika Aldaiturriaga, Basque Energy Agency (EVE) - ealdaiturriaga@eve.eus