Context & Challenges
A highly promising yet underdeveloped energy resource
The Atlantic Area concentrates one of Europe’s most significant wave energy resources. Compared to other renewable sources, wave energy offers a higher power density and lower variability, with strong potential to complement wind and solar energy and support a more stable energy system.
Despite these advantages, wave energy deployment across the Atlantic remains constrained and uneven, revealing the challenges of translating high resource potential into effective and scalable deployment pathways.
Towards more informed and coordinated deployment
Bridging the gap between high resource potential and effective deployment requires improved coordination, strong stakeholder engagement and access to reliable, integrated evidence. There is a clear need for approaches that:
- reduce uncertainty for policymakers and investors
- support balanced decision-making across environmental, social and economic dimensions
- facilitate cooperation between regions and sectors
- enable the transfer and uptake of knowledge across the Atlantic Area
