3 MW Offshore Solar System Off Belgium Coast

• Oceans of Energy to build a 3 MW offshore floating solar power plant co-located with a bottom fixed windfarm off the Belgian coast
• Work on it will start in September 2021 along with another 1.2 MW wave energy project co-located with a floating wind farm in Portugal
• Both are demonstration projects supported by EU-SCORES that's funded by Horizon 2020 research and innovation program of the EU

Oceans of Energy, an offshore solar power company from the Netherlands, will build a 3 MW offshore solar farm under European Union (EU) funded European Scalable Offshore Renewable Energy Sources (EU-SCORES). It will be co-located with a bottom fixed windfarm off the Belgian coast.

Under the aegis of EU-SCORES, there is another project planned to have 1.2 MW wave energy array by CorPower Ocean in Portugal, co-located with a floating wind farm. Both these 'highly comprehensive and impactful' demonstration projects will be kicked off in September 2021.

These projects are expected to unlock the large-scale potential of wind, wave and offshore solar systems while bringing down energy cost per MWh and strengthening European energy system. "The full-scale demonstrations are intended to prove how the increased power output and capacity installed per km² will reduce the amount of marine space needed, thereby leaving more space for aquaculture, fisheries, shipping routes and environmentally protected zones," stated Oceans of Energy in a statement.

As the name suggests, EU-SCORES will encourage development of bankable multi-offshore parks across Europe by 2025 to contribute to the EUs target of 230 GW to 440 GW of installed offshore wind, and 40 GW ocean energy capacity by 2050. EU-SCORES is funded by the Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. Some of the research projects under Horizon 2020 participated in 3-day virtual conference of TaiyangNews on What's Hot In European Solar R&D (see What's Hot In European Solar R&D).

Apart from Oceans of Energy and CorPower Ocean, other EU-SCORES consortium partners are Dutch Marine Energy Centre (DMEC), TU Delft, SBM Offshore, POM West-Vlaanderen (POM), RWE Renewables (RWE), Uppsala University, Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology (LUT), Enel Green Power, RINA offshore consultants, INNOSEA – a AqualisBraemar LOC Group company, EDP Labelec, WavEC Offshore Renewables, INESC TEC, Exceedence, and Western Star Wave – a Simply Blue Group company.

In March 2021, Sunseap Group of Singapore completed one of the world's largest offshore floating solar farms on sea water in Straits of Johor with 5 MW capacity (see 5 MW Offshore Floating PV Farm Online).

In January 2021, Equinor and Moss Maritime said they were planning to launch an offshore floating solar power plant in Norway as the 1^st such pilot plant globally in rough waters (see Offshore Floating Solar Power Pilot Planned In Norway).