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November 8, 2025

Ocean Energy Europe 2025

Conference Report

Ocean Energy Europe (OEE) 2025 brought together over 300 participants from nearly 40 countries, reaffirming its role as the annual event for the ocean energy sector. The conference brought together high-level professionals, industry leaders, innovators, (EU) policymakers, and financiers for two days of exchange, knowledge sharing, and networking in Brussels.

Analysis of participants

• United Kingdom (including Wales & Scotland) led with 53 delegates, followed by Belgium (43), Netherlands (22), Germany (17), France (16), and Spain (15).
• Smaller but notable representations came from the United States (12), Ireland (9), Norway (6), Sweden (5), and Denmark (5).
• The remaining represented a broad mix from countries such as Italy, Canada, Australia, Japan, Georgia, Faroe Islands, Barbados, Luxembourg, Iceland, the Philippines, Poland, and others—demonstrating the event’s international reach.

Conference highlights

• The event opened with a well-attended Welcome Reception at Scotland House. Afterwards, around a dozen participants from Dutch companies — including Equinox, WECO, Bluespring/Campus@Sea, DMEC, Teijin, and WavePiston — got together for an informal dinner.
• Day one highlighted flagship projects from HydroQuest, Proteus, SeaTurn, and CorPower, alongside discussions on innovation financing and industry growth. Keynote presentations by Pierre Vogt (Normandie) and Costas Kadis (European Commissioner, for Fisheries & Ocean) emphasised ocean energy’s strategic role in Europe’s blue economy and referenced the Ocean Act, expected by late 2026, which aims to promote the sustainable use of oceans.
• Afternoon sessions showcased the sector’s innovation: results from EuropeWave phase 3 (with Mocean (UK), CETO (AU) and IDOM (S)), grid flexibility benefits, and debates on tidal technology deployment.
• Day two had sessions on developing business cases, risk reduction, tech showcases (wave and tidal), and a closing panel by Captains of industry on accelerating industrialisation in Europe.
• Dutch contributions featured prominently, with DMEC, WECO, and Slow Mill on stage, and EWA, DeRegt, SeaQurrent, Bluespring, Equinox, Slow Mill, DMEC, and Symphony represented on the exhibition floor.

Vi Maris Award

• Guillaume Gréau, Development Director at HydroQuest, received the Vi Maris (“Power of the Sea”) Award—recognizing significant individual contributions to the sector. The award celebrates dedication, innovation, and leadership in marine energy technology and project delivery.

Thematic insights

• The Innovation Fund will announce a new call for proposals in 2 weeks. Their session described a €40 billion allocation up to 2030, supporting pilot projects (up to €40M per project in 2024) and demonstrating ocean energy’s leading position among renewable applicants (!). Of 359 applications, 61 proposals were funded, including 11 pilots – ie quite a good success rate. 5 ocean energy projects have been awarded funding to date.
• The “Building the business case” panel emphasised the importance of clear risk mapping, the need for diversified (blended) financing (public, debt, equity), and the crucial role of consistent public funding, guarantees (insurance), and certification for investor confidence.
• Several sessions highlighted investor perspectives: VCs typically avoid R&D and value passionate teams with skin in the game and first witnessing milestones before investing (investors don’t decide to invest in a short time, it often requires years of relationship building); impact funds seek revenue guarantees; large institutions like EIB stressed the need for transparent due diligence and responsibility allocation.
• Yago Torre-Enciso from BiMEP shared his four Ts:
  1. Take Time (“test in November instead of May”)
  2. Trust Test Centres – we witnessed what went wrong
  3. Seek external Talent
  4. Apply Technical Specifications.
• The networking was great; facilited by the central, compact venue, outstanding catering throughout (refreshments were served directly at the end session), availability of a practical mini programme card was brilliant, and high-quality exhibitor displays.

Offshore Proof at OEE

POM and OPEN-C, both partners in Offshore Proof, joined us at OEE 2025, where Lina and I represented Campus@Sea. Ewout Vandorpe presented the Blue Accelerator test platform during the session “From Tank to Ocean”, moderated by Marlene Kiersnovski from OPEN-C. Peter & Lina spoke with many technology developers at TRL 4-5 with an interest to test under Offshore Proof.