ELBE – Eurocluster of Blue Energy

ended

The objective of this proposal is to create a European Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Joint Cluster Initiative, called ELBE EUROCLUSTER, that will intensify collaboration across seven key EU regions in this field. This partnership, which is built on the existing ELBE Alliance, will develop and implement supporting measures for SMEs with a view to improve the resilience of the European renewable energy industrial ecosystem (with a focus on the offshore alternative), and boost its green and digital transformation. ELBE EUROCLUSTER aims to contribute to the implementation of the European Commission’s New Industrial Strategy for Europe and the SME Strategy for a sustainable and digital Europe adopted. While doing so, the project is also aligned with supporting the implementation of the European Commission’s Strategy for Offshore Renewable Energy, which has the ambition of reaching an installed capacity of at least 60 GW offshore wind and at least 1 GW of ocean energy by 2030, with a view to achieving capacity of at least 300 GW and 40 GW respectively by 2050. ELBE EUROCLUSTER will work on an ORE Resiliency Report that will identify existing gaps in the European value chain (in terms of innovation, skills and supply chain) and help to better understand the complex interlinkages among European organisations and regions. This analysis will guide the prioritization of support calls in three areas: Innovation, Training & Adoption and Internationalisation. The main concepts underpinning the success of the project are: (1) A consortium that has been successfully collaborating since 2018 as part of the ELBE Alliance, (2) An ongoing involvement of partners in European ORE value chain activities in terms of innovation, skills or supply chain, (3) A focused implementation of the SME support scheme mechanism, and (4) A structured methodology that is efficient and streamlined as it is based on existing methodologies from partners that will be extended to the European level.