Context

Established in 1974, the International Energy Agency (IEA) carries out a broad programme of global cooperation by examining the full range of energy issues and advocating policies that will enhance security, economic development, environmental awareness and engagement. The operational implementation of these actions is carried out through 42 technology collaboration programmes, one of which is dedicated to ocean energy (IEA-OES).

Objectives

To promote the viability and adoption of ocean energy recovery systems by integrating a sustainable development approach through and international expertise. Factual, independent and collegially developed, the documents produced are intended to be authoritative.

Scientific and technical content

• Review, exchange and dissemination of information on the emergence or passing of key milestones in new technologies, notably with the publication of the IEA-OES annual report, a highly informative document on the state of the art worldwide.
• International framework for the development of performance indicators.
• Verification and validation of the modelling of energy recovery systems.
• Evaluation of the LCOE.
• Authorisation procedures in Member States.
• Assessment and monitoring of environmental effects through OES-Environmental, which publishes a state of science report every four years, providing a key compendium of the evolution of methodologies and knowledge on the environmental integration of ocean energy projects.
• Methodological study and evaluation on a global scale of job creation.

Organisation

The Programme brings together 25 countries, each of which appoints a delegate and his or her alternate, thus constituting an Executive Committee in charge of the operational management of IEA-OES actions. This committee elects for two years a Chairman and two Vice-Chairmen. Topic sub-working groups are set up within the Programme in order to carry out the various tasks incumbent upon it. France Energies Marines holds one of the vice-chairmanships of the IEA-OES, and as such represents the group of experts at international meetings. The Institute also leads a French mirror group which allows a better dissemination of the work and facilitates the feedback of information that it is desirable to share at the international level, ensuring the publicity of the French sector and its progress. France Energies Marines also participates in the steering of several sub-groups, including the one aimed at identifying jobs created by ocean energies internationally.

Resources

YouTube Channel

IEA-OES Publications

Photo credit: Dimitri Svetsikas 1969 / Pixabay