Press Release: Oliver Wragg re-elected to OEE board
Oliver Wragg, Commercial Director at EMEC
Oliver Wragg, Commercial Director at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), has been re-elected to the Ocean Energy Europe (OEE) Board of Directors.
New appointments will be tasked with uniting the sector behind a strategy to build an ocean energy industry in Europe.
Seven key figures from across Europe’s ocean energy sector were elected to the OEE Board of Directors, with representation including wave and tidal energy developers, test facilities, and RD&I centres.
The elected Directors are:
- Oliver Wragg, Commercial Director, EMEC
- Tony Lewis, Beaufort Professor Emeritus, MaREI
- Patrik Moller, CEO, CorPower Ocean
- Kieran O’Brien, European Director, Carnegie Clean Energy
- Pablo Ruiz-Minguela, Head of Wave Energy, Tecnalia
- Andrew Scott, CEO, Scotrenewables Tidal Power
- Jochen Weilepp, Board Advisor, Schottel Hydro
Commenting on the re-election, Mr Wragg, said:
“It is a great honour to have been re-elected to the Ocean Energy Europe board. The sector is at a critical stage of development, transitioning from full scale in sea testing at EMEC to the first commercial projects.
“The work that Ocean Energy Europe does has been central to securing critical ongoing support from the Commission to aid both technology development and creating the right financial instruments for the first commercial projects.
“I look forward to working with the staff at Ocean Energy Europe and my fellow directors on the board over the next three years; continuing to help policy makers, investors and industry understand the great opportunity that ocean energy represents to Europe and the challenges that need to be overcome to unlock its potential.”
OEE also appointed new co-Presidents: Simon De Pietro (DP Energy, Ireland) and Laurent Schneider-Maunoury (Naval Energies, France). The duo bring a formidable combination of expertise to the table, as representatives of key project developers and OEMs in the ocean energy sector.
They will set the industry’s strategy in the coming years, as it aims to deploy pre-commercial farms in European waters.
Laurent Schneider-Maunoury, CEO Naval Energies and OEE co-President said:
“I am delighted to serve as co-President of Ocean Energy Europe. Now is a crucial time for ocean energy in Europe, as we stand on the brink of commercialisation. Ocean energy has a significant impact on local economies and industrial supply chains where it is deployed and all over Europe. The EU has an important role to play to support development on the ground in Member States.”
Simon de Pietro, Managing Director of DP Energy and OEE co-President said:
“I am honoured to be reappointed as co-President of Ocean Energy Europe by the industry. We have accomplished a lot in recent years, and reached some very significant milestones in 2017 with both steel in water and generation being measured in GWh not KWh.
“With this new Board we are in a good position to capitalise on the ground gained and improve both yield and reduce costs. Ocean energy can not only produce clean, predictable energy but can do so at a price and with a generation characteristic that can complement commercially fully developed renewables such as wind and solar with their own specific generation characteristics.
“Together these technologies, along with rapidly advancing storage technology, can help move Europe towards decarbonisation and at the same time provide jobs and economic opportunities across the EU.
“The added value of ocean energy is too good to ignore from a market point of view. The industrial opportunity is too good to ignore from a political point of view.”
Source: Press Release: New OEE Co-Presidents and Directors target pre-commercial deployments
About Ocean Energy Europe
Ocean Energy Europe is the largest network of ocean energy professionals in the world. Over 120 organisations, including Europe’s leading utilities, industrialists and research institutes, trust Ocean Energy Europe to represent the interests of Europe’s ocean energy sector.
Ocean Energy Europe’s objective is to create a strong environment for the development of ocean energy, improve access to funding and enhance business opportunities for its members. To achieve this, it engages with the European Commission, Council, Parliament, European Investment Bank, and national ministries on all dossiers affecting the sector, such energy, climate, finance, grid and consenting.
