Jason Hayman, CEO of Sustainable Marine Energy, is the winner of this year’s Vi Maris Award, presented during the annual Ocean Energy Europe Conference & Exhibition, held online.

Jason Hayman was nominated for over a decade of tireless work for the ocean energy sector. At the helm of Sustainable Marine Energy since 2009, Jason has navigated both the Plat-O and Plat-I floating tidal devices through their demonstration phases, and is now gearing up to install one of the world’s foremost tidal energy projects in Canada.

The Pempa’q In-stream Tidal Energy Project is a multi-device array to be deployed in the Bay of Fundy, home to the world’s highest tides. The project recently secured €18.4m in funding from the Canadian government and is destined to provide up to 9MW of clean, predictable tidal energy into the grid.

A shortlist of five nominees was considered by a panel of Ocean Energy Europe board members, who voted by secret ballot for the winner. The other nominees recognised for their valuable work in the sector were Mario Iglesias Casal (Magallanes Renovables), Audrie Jourdan (formerly GEPS Techno), Tim Cornelius (SIMEC Atlantis Energy) and Tony Lewis (OceanEnergy Ltd).

By Jake Frith