Abstract
As a relatively new industry, wave energy faces many hurdles, including questions concerning its environmental impacts and public and stakeholder group attitudes towards wave energy sites. The EU funded SOWFIA project aims to address these issues by providing recommendations for the streamlining of approval processes for wave energy developments across Europe. This paper analyses the results of two surveys conducted to assess the opinions of developers and maritimespace users on wave energy and to investigate commonalities and differences in stakeholder groups’ perceptions of wave energy across different test sites in Europe.