3rd Annual New England Marine Renewable Energy Center Technical Conference

On Novenber 7 and 8, the third annual New England Marine Renewable Energy Center (MERC) technical conference was held in Cambridge, MA. There were forty presentations including offshore wind, tidal systems, modeling, ocean energy systems, wave energy technology, and considerations for commercial applications.

In addition to technical papers presented there were also ten poster presentations set up in the lobby adjacent to the conference room. Peter Fraenkel, Chief Technology Officer at Marine Current Turbines was the keynote speaker. Mr. Fraenkel focused on the present and future applications of the ocean energy industry in his presentation, “ Observations of Ocean Energy: Where are we now and where are we headed?”

Each day technical presentations were broken into four sessions. On November 7 following the keynote speaker, the first of eight total sessions throughout the two-day conference, focused on environmental impact. These sessions were followed after lunch break by two sessions covering tidal energy. Each session was comprised of five to seven speakers with technical expertise in those areas of marine renewable energy.

November 8 sessions began with keynote speaker Dr. Hans-Joachim Stietzel, Managing Director for Cuxen Harbor Development Company. Dr. Stietzel focused on how coastal regions in Germany have benefited from offshore wind energy. The second day of the conference focused on discussions regarding commercialization, wind, modeling and wave energy technology. Several other noted speakers in attendance included Patrick Cloney, Executive Director, MassCEC, Mark Sinclair, Executive Director, Clean Energy States Alliance, and Dr. Brian Howes from the University of Massachusetts- Dartmouth.