About
In 2026, ocean energy and hydropower are being brought together within a single SET Plan Implementation Working Group, reflecting the strategic role of water-based energy technologies in Europe’s transition to a secure, competitive and climate-neutral energy system. By bringing together expertise in marine and freshwater technologies, the Implementation Working Group (IWG) will strengthen coordination, foster knowledge exchange and accelerate the development and deployment of solutions that provide renewable electricity, long-duration energy storage, system flexibility and resilience across Europe.
Established by the SET Plan Steering Group, the IWG on Ocean Energy and Hydropower supports the implementation of the SET Plan in these complementary sectors. The consolidated IWG responds to the growing need for a coherent European approach that aligns research, innovation, policy and investment, strengthens energy security, strategic autonomy and industrial competitiveness, and supports the transition towards a climate-neutral and resilient energy system.
Within the IWG, the Ocean Energy subgroup focuses primarily on wave and tidal-stream energy, while also covering tidal range, ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC), seawater air conditioning (SWAC) and salinity-gradient technologies. These technologies provide access to substantial and still largely untapped marine energy resources and offer distinct but complementary benefits for the European energy system. Tidal-stream generation is highly predictable, wave energy can complement wind and solar production across different timescales and seasons, while OTEC, SWAC and salinity-gradient solutions can provide valuable electricity, cooling and energy services in specific coastal, island and regional contexts.
The Hydropower Generation and Storage subgroup covers all hydropower technologies, including conventional hydropower and pumped hydropower storage. As one of Europe's largest sources of renewable electricity and its most mature large-scale energy storage technology, hydropower plays a key role in providing flexibility, long-duration energy storage and essential ancillary services that ensure grid stability, security of supply and the efficient integration of growing shares of variable renewable energy.
Although ocean energy and hydropower exploit different resources and follow distinct technological and market pathways, they share several strategic priorities. These include improving access to investment and revenue support, simplifying and accelerating permitting, strengthening environmental performance, advancing digitalisation and predictive operation, developing resilient European supply chains and addressing skills gaps.
Closer coordination within the IWG can facilitate knowledge exchange, align national and European research and innovation priorities, and promote common approaches to monitoring, standards and sustainable deployment, while preserving the specific objectives and operational autonomy of each subgroup.
Targets and objectives
The consolidated IWG on Ocean Energy and Hydropower aims to accelerate the development, modernisation and deployment of water-based renewable energy and storage technologies by advancing research, innovation, industrial competitiveness and market integration while strengthening Europe's energy security, flexibility and climate resilience.
The Thematic Vision is underpinned by the following common objectives and targets:
- accelerate the commercialisation and deployment of ocean energy technologies, the deployment of pumped hydropower storage and the modernisation, repowering and storage-oriented optimisation of existing hydropower generation and storage assets
- advance digitalisation, data-driven operation and, where appropriate, AI-enabled tools across both technology areas
- strengthen the contribution of hydropower and pumped storage to system adequacy, balancing, grid stability, system restoration and the secure integration of variable renewable energy
- improve environmental performance, biodiversity protection, ecological continuity where relevant, climate and water resilience, and sustainable deployment practices including adaptation to changing hydrological conditions
- develop enabling market, regulatory, permitting and investment frameworks tailored to each technology area
- establish a harmonised monitoring framework combining comparable cross-cutting indicators with technology-specific key performance indicators for ocean energy, hydropower generation and pumped hydropower storage.
By 2050, the IWG seeks to achieve:
- commercially mature and globally competitive European ocean energy technologies
- a modernised, repowered, digitally enabled and climate-resilient hydropower fleet with improved efficiency, flexibility, availability, safety and environmental performance, serving as a cornerstone of Europe's secure and flexible electricity system
- substantial deployment and modernisation of hydropower generation and pumped storage assets capable of providing a broad range of balancing, adequacy, ancillary and system-restoration services
- electricity-market and regulatory frameworks that appropriately recognise and remunerate renewable generation, capacity, flexibility, complementarity, long-duration storage, adequacy, ancillary services and system-restoration capabilities
- high environmental performance across both sectors, including biodiversity protection, ecological continuity where relevant, transparent monitoring and enhanced water resilience
- low lifecycle greenhouse-gas emissions, improved material circularity and sustainable construction, manufacturing and end-of-life practices across both sectors
- coordinated European research, innovation and industrial ecosystems that maintain and strengthen Europe's global leadership in ocean energy and hydropower generation and storage technologies.
IWG members
The working group is chaired by Bulgaria, Italy, Norway and Portugal.
Participating SET Plan countries (in alphabetical order):
| Country | Membership |
| Bulgaria | Co-chair |
| Bulgaria | Active member |
| France | Temporary observer |
| Ireland | Active member |
| Italy | Co-chair |
| Italy | Active member |
| Malta | Temporary observer |
| Norway | Co-chair |
| Norway | Active member |
| Norway | Temporary observer |
| Portugal | Co-chair |
| Portugal | Active member |
| Spain | Active member |
| Spain | Temporary observer |
| Sweden | Active member |
| United Kingdom | Temporary observer |
Documents
Contacts
- IWG Subgroup on Ocean Energy Co-Chair – Gianmaria Sannino (gianmaria [dot] sannino
enea [dot] it (gianmaria[dot]sannino[at]enea[dot]it)) - IWG Subgroup on Ocean Energy Co-Chair – Ana Alexandra Andrade (Ana [dot] Andradedgeg [dot] gov [dot] pt (Ana[dot]Andrade[at]dgeg[dot]gov[dot]pt))
- IWG Subgroup on Hydropower Generation and Storage Co-Chair – Denis Beev (denis [dot] beevnek [dot] bg (denis[dot]beev[at]nek[dot]bg))