Organised on this occasion in collaboration with JRL-ORE, Tecnalia, and EHU, within the framework of the XII Marine Energy Conference, the session also featured a keynote speech by Henry Jeffrey, co-director of the UK ORE Supergen Hub, who addressed the relevance of disruptive innovation and industrial modernisation as key elements for Europe to maintain its position in the marine renewable energy sector.
The meeting of the BASQUENERGY Cluster Wave Energy Sector Forum took place on May 27. The session was held at the Bilbao School of Engineering (EHU) and was attended by 63 participants from 16 different entities.
The day was a joint event that brought together the Sector Forum meeting and the twelfth edition of the Marine Energy Conference, promoted by JRL-ORE, Tecnalia, and EHU, which addressed topics related not only to wave energy but to marine renewable energies in general. Eider Robles, Scientific Director of Tecnalia and organiser of the conference, and Marcos Suarez, Director of the Wave Energy Area of the BASQUENERGY Cluster, opened the session by welcoming the attendees and reviewing the day’s agenda.
The event featured Henry Jeffrey, Director of the Policy and Innovation Group at the University of Edinburgh, who spoke about the importance of disruptive innovation and industrial modernisation to ensure the competitiveness of the marine renewable energy supply chain.
Following this line regarding the future of the sector, Pablo Ruiz Minguela, Head of Research and Development at Tecnalia, presented the European Commission’s two new flagship calls for wind and ocean energies. With budgets of 93 and 43 million euros respectively and closing dates on September 15, 2026 (Wind Call HORIZON-CL5-2026-09-D3-03) and March 31, 2027 (Ocean Energies Call HORIZON-CL5-2027-02-D3-09), they are intended to fund innovative technology projects in wind, wave, and tidal energy.
Within the framework of EuropeWave, Patxi Etxaniz from IDOM shared his experience installing the MARMOK-A-5, the wave converter recently connected at the BiMEP open-sea test area, while Miguel Santos from Carnegie provided an update on the manufacturing status of their CETO converter, which they also expect to install in the coming months.
After the break, Naiara Doblas, Head of Engineering at Siemens Gamesa, focused on the execution of the SOFIA project, the installation of a 1,400 MW fixed offshore wind farm currently being carried out by Siemens Gamesa. In addition to showing the operations through videos and real images of the wind turbine assembly, she shared lessons learned from the operation with the attendees.
On behalf of Tecnalia, Joseba López-Mendia presented the data capabilities of HarsLab and its challenges, focused on the monitoring, analysis, and management of information in the marine environment. This was followed by the presentation of the Elkartek RULET project by Miren Sánchez, which aims to generate new approaches based on artificial intelligence and the construction of datasets for estimating the useful life of moorings and umbilicals for offshore renewable technologies.
Within the framework of the European TurboWave project, Iñigo Doria from Arrecife Energy Systems presented the installation process of their turbine at the Mutriku breakwater, showing videos and real images of the operations and explaining lessons learned from the process. Borja de Miguel from IDOM also shared the progress and next steps for their turbine, which will be installed in Mutriku shortly.
During the day, there was also space for the more academic side. Jesús María Blanco from EHU presented the Blueskilling Innovation initiative and the new edition of the REM Plus 2 Master’s degree. Furthermore, at the conclusion of the event, PhD sessions were held where doctoral students presented progress on their theses in marine energies.
The meeting, which concluded with a lunch and networking space, also included a visit to the Wave Flume, the multipurpose wave test bench of the Department of Energy Engineering at EHU.