Pushing forward the development of the Blue Economy

It was an amazing and exciting journey dedicated to the Blue Economy. This journey started in the Aquaculture Europe 2022 in Rimini (IT) from the 27th to the 30th of October. Under the theme: “Innovative Solutions in a Changing World” - a full program of presentations covering different challenges, complemented with new solutions putted in place to develop a sustainable, responsible, and productive and climate neutral European aquaculture. INESC TEC was present with B2E Blue Bioeconomy CoLAB .

The EU-SCORES meeting in Cork, 6th and 7th of October, led me to the Offshore Renewable Energies sector. This ambitious European Green Deal project will demonstrate the combination of offshore wind with wave- and offshore solar PV energy. This will pave the way for bankable multi-source offshore parks across Europe by 2025, using offshore space more efficiently and balance the electricity grid to achieve a resilient and cost-effective 100% renewable energy system. During this meeting we had the opportunity to visit NMCI Sea Survival Pool & Facilities, MaREI & the LiR - National Ocean Test Facility.

For the first time I had the opportunity to participate in IntWaTERS, the meeting point for the World’s Leading Marine Energy Test Centres, where the Agu?adoura test site fits like a glove. On the 13th and 14th of October in Bilbao, the representatives of the different Test Sites had the opportunity to share updates on their progress and challenges, identify common challenges and opportunities, discuss key R&D topics, and identify actions to forge relationships and knowledge transfer between test sites.

Complementing the IntWaTERS meeting, during the following week, I had the opportunity to visit the BiMEP Biscay Marine Energy Platform – Biscay Marine Energy Platform. The visit to Mutriku facilities as well the Open Sea test site was inspiring and proved how dynamic this sector is becoming.

The visit to the hydraulics, coasts and offshore laboratory of IHCantabria , on the 7th of November in Santander, proved how complex these laboratories are in terms of civil construction, internal structures and equipment’s, to support the test and validation of offshore solutions.

The closing of such an exciting journey was back in Portugal, in Lisbon, for the WavEC - Offshore Renewables annual Seminar on the 10th of November, where I had the opportunity to moderate an inspiring session on “technology innovation and research” where several well know companies showed their progression and innovations. I also had the opportunity to present what INESC TEC and its partners are doing to “make marine renewables a competitive and reliable option for clean power supply”.

Thanks to my position at INESC TEC as Business Development Manager for the Blue Economy and President of the Board of Directors of CEO I had the opportunity to learn and share experience with all people with whom I came across in this journey.