Wave and Tidal Stream power get strong support

The Government’s response to the Science and Technology Select Committee’s very positive report on Wave and Tidal Energy (see Renew 133) was equally positive, with a preface by Energy Minister Brian Wilson reporting on progress that had been made since the Committee reported last April, including the announcement of about £1.7m of DTI funding for Wavegens new offshore demonstration project. Although he didn’t mention it, the DTI is also supporting IT Powers demonstration tidal stream project. In addition he said that he expected that the DTI would soon be ‘supporting three wave energy and two tidal stream projects. Hopefully, two of these projects will lead to demonstration plants being constructed and a programme of testing started in Summer 2002’.

In addition to these projects, he noted that the DTI will be ‘continuing to recruit new wave and tidal stream projects via the Sustainable Energy Support Programme call process’. He went on ‘As well as funding projects in the UK, I am pleased to be able to tell you that DTI’s work with Portugal and Denmark has led to the International Energy Agency approving a new Implementing Agreement on Ocean Energy Systems at the October meeting of their Governing Board. DTI’s participation in this new IEA agreement is already opening up new opportunities for the UK to collaborate with other countries because of our leading position in these technologies’.

He concluded ‘I believe that, since the programme was only restarted in 1999, the UK is making good progress with the development of reliable and cost effective wave and tidal current technologies’.

It seems then that wave and tidal power are seriously back in the fold, and the Select Committee were clearly delighted at the part they had played. Dr Ian Gibson, Chairman of the Committee, said "This is an excellent response to our report on Wave and Tidal Energy in the last Parliament. As the Minister acknowledges, our inquiry has focussed attention on the potential energy resources around the UK and the world at large. Since we reported, the Government has granted, or is granting, funding to three wave energy projects and two tidal current schemes - funding worth more than £3.2 million. This is a good start’.

He went on ‘Our Committee recommended that the Government establish a National Offshore Wave and Tidal Test Centre. We are delighted by the progress made in identifying a site at Stromness in Orkney for a Marine Energy Test Centre and look forward to its opening as soon as possible. Our Committee recommended that targeted funding for wave and tidal energy research be increased steadily to create a critical mass of researchers in the field. Since we reported, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council has launched a Sustainable Energy Generation Programme, within which they expect to support a wave and tidal energy ‘centre of excellence’.

However, it wasn’t all sweetness and light. In its report the Committee had commented that, ‘given the UK’s abundant natural wave and tidal resource, it is extremely regrettable and surprising that the development of wave and tidal energy technologies has received so little support from the Government’.

In its detailed response the government countered that ‘the UK already has one of the few operating wave energy plants in the world, the LIMPET 500 electricity generating plant on the island of Islay,’ and pointed to the subsequent funding provisions, for wave and tidal schemes, the total value of which was over £6 m with the DTI contributing more than £3.2m. It bounced off most of the other critical comments similarly - by claiming that it now had a commitment to wave and tidal.

Although the PIU subsequently recommended allocating a further £5m to wave and tidal work, even if it takes all of that on, the DTI will hardly be going overboard with funding. Clearly then the resuscitation of these energy options is still only partial, and the DTI’s commitment is still hedged with caution. Thus, in its detailed comments, the government noted that ‘A priority for the DTI’s support programme on renewables and sustainable energy technologies is to promote the development of emerging technologies to the point where informed decisions can be made about their prospects. This is key to promoting confidence in new ways of meeting the UK’s energy needs and providing the funds for major infrastructure investment’.

So, as far as major full scale projects in concerned, it’s still, ‘wait and see’. That was one point made when the report was debated in Parliament in Jan - see later.

Energy, Skills and Jobs

‘The Committee’s report makes a sound case for investigating the contribution wave and tidal energy could make to the UK’s energy supplies and help to mitigate the effects of climate change caused by burning fossil fuels. As the report identified, the UK has an excellent skills base, which can be used to address the significant challenges of developing and deploying technologies to harness renewable energy from the oceans. Many of these skills have already been utilised to successfully exploit Britain’s offshore oil and gas reserves and, as this becomes a mature industry, these skills will become available to aid the development and deployment of offshore renewable energy industries and provide employment opportunities now and in the future’ ferom the governments response to the Select Committees report

Test Centre

In its reply to the Select Committee the government reported that a recent study, commissioned by Scottish Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) had considered potential locations for a Marine Energy Test Centre. The study was undertaken by a member of the UK Marine Foresight Panel and by METOC, a firm of maritime engineers. The study assessed five potential sites, and concluded that the preferred site was Stromness on Orkney, in terms of the available resource (wave power and tidal currents), a shorter distance offshore to exploit these resources, the availability of onshore facilities (offices, storage and berthing), suitable connection to power lines and sheltered water for construction. The second phase of the project, a full-scale site survey and environmental impact assessment, will proceed shortly, funded by HIE and the Scottish Executive.

Eco- Impacts

In its reply, the Government noted that, ‘whilst providing a clean, reliable source of energy, the installation of any artificial device into the environment will affect it in some ways. The real environmental impact of wave and tidal energy has to be determined to the satisfaction of all stakeholders if the technologies are to succeed’. However any local impact should be ‘balanced against the global effect of reliance on fossil fuel sources of energy; for every 1% increase in market share by a renewable technology, there is a 2% reduction in CO2 emissions’. The Government added that it was ‘prepared to support the technology developers by sponsoring generic research into this very important area at an appropriate time in the development cycle’.

Parliament Debates Wave & Tidal Power

In January there was a House of Commons adjournment debate on wave and tidal power, which took as its starting point last years very positive report by Science and Technology Select Committee. There was much enthusiasm for wave and tidal power set against criticism of how badly they had been treated in the past. Thus Dr. Desmond Turner (Brighton, Kemptown) asked : ‘What position would we have been in if instead of terminating wave power research and development in 1982 we had invested more in it? If we had continued and invested more in it, we might now have as proud an industry in wave power as the Danes have in wind power’.

To which Brian Wilson, the Energy Minister replied: ‘I agree with everything that my hon. Friend said about the short-sightedness of the decision that was taken then. It is also worth recording that the same thing happened with wind power. We had a technological lead in wind power and threw it away’.

Wilson staked his claim as a long term supporter of wave power, by noting that, when, 20 years ago, he was editor of the West Highland Free press, he had run an article by David Ross on that subject ( Ross is currently calling for the `wave programme to be nationalised which may not be quite so easy for Wilson to swallow!).

Nostalgia apart, the emphasis of the Commons debate was on the future, with Desmond Turner, who was on the Select Committee, clearly being one of star turns. Thus Turner noted that ‘in 1999, the DTI’s energy technology support unit estimated that the energy that was easily and practically accessible was 50 TWh per year from offshore wave power and 36 TWh per year from tidal power- and that from only the 10 most promising sites. Even on extremely conservative estimates, more than a quarter of the UK’s total energy consumption of 330 TWh per year is available and exploitable. In fact, I am inclined to err towards the Greenpeace estimate and predict that there is sufficient exploitable energy resource to supply our total energy consumption requirements’.

He added ‘Another important aspect of energy provision is a regular baseline supply. The prime argument of the nuclear lobby is that nothing can supplant nuclear reactors in supplying steady, predictable baseline load. We received evidence from energy generators that they could see few problems for electricity companies in integrating both wave and tidal energy supplies into the grid owing to the reliability and predictability of their output. That certainly applies to tidal power because, apart from the short interval of slack water between tides, there is available power for 24 hours at every site. Not only that, there will eventually be constant supplies due to tidal variations- as long as sites are scattered along the coast. Tidal power is uniquely capable of supplying the baseline load that the nuclear industry claims as its prerogative.’

He was equally positive about solar PV, but he had some critical things to say about biomass, asking why was it receiving more support than wave and tide power? ‘Its economics are uncertain. I am not aware of any reliable, published figures on the economics of electricity generation by biomass. Unresolved issues of environmental impact and potential pollution exist, and any application in generating plants of a large scale would raise a storm of planning issues. The same can be said for waste incineration. At the moment, municipal waste incineration is also counted as part of renewables, which I find highly questionable. Both options are described as CO2 neutral and that is rather simplistic because they involve rapid CO2 emission- far more rapid than the speed at which CO2 is taken out of the atmosphere to produce the materials that are being burnt.’

He concluded ‘The preliminary document from the PIU refers to the need for new energy crop technologies to be developed, which underlines the fact that biomass technology lags behind wave and tidal paths and, even when developed, it cannot guarantee non- CO2 emitting energy prediction in the way that wave and tide can’.

However, Brian Wilson was evidently not keen on taking sides technologically. ‘We should not be picking winners at this stage. We must let them all flourish to their optimum, and then decide which has the greatest potential for use in the United Kingdom. The market will decide to some extent, but we will have a much more realistic view in a few years time, of which systems can provide significant and economic sources of power’.

But he did announce that the DTI was contributing ‘more than £1 m of the total cost of the almost £1.5 m Stingray project, which is aimed at demonstrating a novel concept for extracting energy from tidal currents. The Stingray device prototype generates electricity from the oscillatory movement of hydro-planes driven by flowing tidal currents. The project is being developed by the Engineering Business, a Wallsend company, which plans to test its device in Shetland. It is the third demonstration project in the wave and tidal stream area to be supported by Government during the past six months’. (See below).

He also reminded the Commons that the DTI was putting £1.7 m into the development of Wavegens offshore wave device - which is likely to be tested at the new centre in Orkney. But he added ‘It is remiss not to build on what exists already because that gives it commercial and operational credibility. I do not want to lose the momentum for shoreline and near-shore systems, and I want to encourage the refinement of that technology. I am therefore pleased to announce that one of the UK’s major electricity companies, Scottish and Southern Energy plc, is working with Wavegen to develop a proposal for a cluster of shore-based stations in the Western isles. The intention is that they will be technically innovative and act both as demonstration plants and commercial generators to supply Scottish and Southern. Wavegen is currently undertaking surveys in the Western isles to establish suitable sites for these developments and is working on outline project proposals. It hopes and intends that a key feature of the plans will be the use of the former Arnish fabrication yard for manufacturing’.

He also noted that the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council has a £6m research and development programme on renewables, focused on fundamental science and engineering issues, with just over £1m committed to wave and tidal energy. In addition , he said he would be looking carefully at what the Chief Scientists new report on RD&D had to say on wave and tidal power (it backed them).

Finally, on planning he said that that ‘it is necessary to have a planning process that matches the country's needs, particularly when major infrastructure projects are involved. We simply cannot wait five years for decisions to be made. We need a more flexible system that respects people’s right to contest proposals but does not lead to unreasonable delays.’

Not a bad session overall - it even includes praise from Robert Key MP, the Conservatives energy spokesman, for the wave chapter in the OU Renewable Energy book. You can access the complete transcript of the debate at:

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200102/cmhansrd/
cm020110/halltext/20110h01.htm#20110h01_head0

DTI Boosts Wave and Tidal Power

As Energy Minister Brian Wilson announced during the House of Commons debate on Wave and Tidal power (see earlier), the DTI is to provide £1.1 m to support the development of a full size "Stingray" tidal stream device, which generates electricity from the oscillatory movement of hydroplanes driven by flowing tidal current. A farm of such devices would convert tidal movement into electricity on a commercial scale. The development of the Stingray device, by Engineering Business Ltd, will take place in Wallsend, Tyneside, while the proposed location for its operation is Shetland. The machine will be located on the seabed reducing the need to protect it from stormy weather.

Wilson said: "Tidal energy has great potential but little has happened until now. The challenge has always been harnessing this energy economically in rough conditions. This project is technologically impressive and maybe a solution to the challenge. I am determined that we should take a lead in the development of this new technology. All too often, clever British ideas have not manifested into the manufacture and finally, the distribution, of the final product. I am determined to not let this happen again. That is why, on top of the Government’s initial money to research the feasibility of the concept, I have today allocated this grant to see the project through to completion."

The hydroplane device was invented and patented in 1997 and won a DTI SMART award in 1998, which provided 75% of the funds for a £51,000 R& D project to assess the feasibility of the concept. Wilson commented "This is a particularly wonderful opportunity for the North East as this new technology offers the opportunity to build a large new industry in the region. Potential for manufacturing is an important part of the case in favour of developing our renewables industry."

As we noted in Renew 128, Stingray generates electricity from the oscillatory movement of hydroplanes driven by flowing tidal current. This transforms the kinetic energy of moving water into hydraulic power, which turns a generator.

As noted earlier, Wilson also announced plans for a cluster of wave power stations in the Western Isles, to be developed by Wavegen in conjunction with Scottish and Southern plc. This should lead to the creation of manufacturing jobs within the islands. Wilson said: "This is an exciting development which will greatly advance the development of shore-based wave technology. I am delighted that the developers, Wavegen, intend to locate the manufacturing process locally. It is their hope and intention that a key feature of these plans will be the use of the former Arnish fabrication yard for manufacturing. Wavegen are now in touch with the owners of Arnish, the Stornoway Trust. The use of Arnish for this purpose is entirely compatible with the intention of Amec and British Energy to use the yard for manufacturing purposes related to their proposed windfarm on Lewis. My Department is, in principle extremely supportive of this proposal for the further development of shoreline and near-shore-based wave power and I expect that we will be asked by Wavegen to consider their proposals at some point within the next three months.’

Wavegens existing 500kW on-shore device on Islay is the only commercial wave power station in the world. Wilson saw the programme as maintaining momentum on the shoreline and near shore systems and to encourage the refinement of that technology. Meanwhile the DTI was also funding Wavegens new offshore wave device.