New perspectives for energy exploitation of Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) were analyzed in a workshop on renewable wave energy potential at the EEZ of Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean.
Speaking at the workshop, Minister of Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Sofoclis Aletraris stressed the importance of using new forms of Renewable Energy Sources (RES).
“Under the urgent needs for monitoring and exploiting renewable energy sources, the wave energy potential for an island state such as Cyprus with an extended EEZ, we hope to open new promising avenues, following the recent successful discovery of hydrocarbons in the EEZ of Cyprus”, the Minister said.
Saying that this goal has the full support of the government, he pointed out that Cyprus, due to its geographical position and political standing, recognizes the key role which is ready to play in favour of enhanced co-ordination between Mediterranean countries for sustainable utilization of the marine resources of the sea.
“The successful cooperation between Cyprus and Israel on hydrocarbon exploration is one such example,” he added.
The Minister explained that to strengthen this goal, there is also a need to consolidate the oceanographic data collection, which will support the monitoring and forecast of the marine environmental conditions and will assist the increase of safety in marine operations, during hydrocarbon exploration.
He also expressed the conviction that the added value of the E-Wave project results, which is funded by the Research Promotion Foundation and the Structural funds of the EU, may support Cyprus’ efforts to meet the goals and its obligations within the EU for increased use of renewable energy “by exploiting a component that is handsomely given by Nature: the sea waves”.
“Such advancement may further contribute to Cyprus’ economy in direct and indirect ways, but also to the global efforts towards a better and cleaner use of our planet’s potentials” he added.
The E-WAVE project is a major research project on exploitation of wave energy in Cyprus, which started in January 2011. The project duration is 24 months and is coordinated by the Oceanographic Center of the University of Cyprus. Five organizations from Cyprus, Greece and USA participate in the consortium.
Its main objective is the creation of a complete, high resolution digital atlas containing detailed maps for the coastal and offshore areas of the EEZ of Cyprus in which sea wave and wind climatological characteristics as well as the distribution of the wave energy potential will be monitoring. It also aims to create novel models for the prediction and quantification of wave energy in short and long forecasts.