Marine renewable energy experts from the South West and from Brittany met at the Maritime Museum in Falmouth to launch the Cornwall Council led project that will identify opportunities in the regions for new industry and jobs.
Attendees at the one day MERiFIC conference on September 13 heard that ports in Cornwall and the wider South West stand to benefit greatly from the development of marine renewable technology.
Alec Robertson, Leader of Cornwall Council, opened the conference with an address in both English and French. He said: “In launching this project here today we are helping to address some of the biggest challenges we have. Our economies are in desperate need of a boost and we need to develop new ways of addressing the sustainability of our energy supply.
“One of the many attributes that Cornwall and Finistere have in common is the fact that we both have very good natural offshore energy resources. We have plenty of waves, tide and wind. We need to maximise the opportunities that they can provide to support business and skill development in the burgeoning marine energy sector.”
The conference heard that ports such as Falmouth and Hayle will play a major part in the marine energy programme.
Michael Quernez, Vice President of the Council of Finistere, said: “It is a really important project, and not only for Finistère. I am maybe tempted to say that it’s very important for the world, as it deals with fighting against climate change, producing renewable energy, achieving the objectives we set together in Europe – 20% of renewable energies by 2020.
“It is a very important project that is launched today as it deals with making sure that the populations accept that our common heritage, the sea, can indeed be used for the development of marine energies.”
The MERiFIC project has been selected under the European Cross-border Cooperation Programme INTERREG IV A France (Channel) – England, which is funded from the European Regional Development Fund and is a partnership of 10 organisations – Cornwall Council, University of Exeter, University of Plymouth and Cornwall Marine Network, Conseil General du Finistère, Le Parc Naturel Marin d’Iroise, Pole Mer Bretagne, Technopole Brest Iroise, IFREMER (French Research Institute for Exploration of the Sea) and Agence Economique de Bretagne.
George Smith, Professor at Exeter University and a speaker at the conference, said: “We are looking at how we can make devices work stronger and last longer. The point of MERiFIC is to bring together the ideas of different regions. We are taking the best expertise to build guidelines and toolkits.”
“MERiFIC is bringing together all of the expertise in a way that will benefit the South West. I’d be very surprised if this didn’t have a big impact on the rest of the European Union.”
Julian German, Cornwall Council cabinet member for Environment, said that the MERiFIC project was a key part of Cornwall Council’s Green Cornwall programme.
He said: “Green Cornwall is about improving our economy’s performance in a sustainable way. Cornwall has the UK’s broadest combination of onshore and offshore natural resources for renewable energy.”
“We need to reposition ourselves to be at the start of the energy distribution line rather than at the end. By creating our own energy production we hope to retain more of the financial benefits.”
MERiFIC is a three-year project which will run until 2014. The project will see funding of £4m spent across the two regions. Cornwall Council is contributing £60,000 towards the project which will be match-funded.
Photo shows l-r Mike Varney, Cornwall Council member for Falmouth Boslowick; Julian German, Cornwall Council cabinet member for Environment; Alec Robertson, Leader of Cornwall Council; Marie-Francoise Le Guen, Vice President of the Council of Finistere, Michael Quernez, Vice President of the Council of Finistere; Chris Pomfret, Chairman of the Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership; Geoffrey Evans, Mayor of Falmouth.