The European project AquaWind, which Consulta Europa is project partner of, has laid the foundations for future collaborations with its sister project “FLORA” (https://wedgeglobal.com/projects/) in a joint event held on 1st June 2023.
AquaWind, led by the Canarian Agency for Research, Innovation and Information Society (ACIISI) of the Government of the Canary Islands, aims to carry out a demonstration test of an integrated multi-use solution, uniting the existing prototype of marine renewable energy production (W2Power) with an innovative aquaculture solution. The new prototype uses an innovative network material and will have a high level of digitization, with the implementation of sensors and automation that will allow remote control of the installation. In turn, this project will be a pioneer in Europe by including for the first time a multi-use prototype for testing live fish of two cultivable species: gilthead bream as a commercial model and amberjack or amberjack as a candidate species for aquaculture diversification.
FLORA is a research and innovation project that seeks to optimize and validate a prototype of a multisensory ocean station capable of producing energy to feed its oceanographic data services. This project has been developed by Wedge Global, a Spanish provider of technology and services for the marine energy market. Like the AquaWind W2Power prototype, the FLORA system will be tested in the waters of the PLOCAN test site under real sea conditions for several months.
The Canary Islands Maritime Cluster with the support of Consulta Europa and the other AquaWind project partners opened the doors to this event, which took place in the new facilities of the Maritime Marine Innovation Center, of the Puertos de Las Palmas Foundation, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. This centre is an initiative of the Sociedad de Promoción Económica de Gran Canaria (SPEGC) in collaboration with the Las Palmas Port Authority and the Puerto de Las Palmas Foundation.
During the event, the participants had the opportunity to learn more about the activities of each of the projects and discuss possible synergies and knowledge exchange.