Renew On Line (UK) 49

2. Marine Energy Challenge

A major new development in marine renewable energy in the UK was announced at the BWEA/RegenSW  Wave and Marine Energy conference in Bristol in Feb. The Marine Energy Challenge from the Carbon Trust is a major new £2.5m programme planned for completion in 2005 to assess the potential for marine energy devices to achieve a competitive cost of electricity generation against other renewables and fossil fuelled power generation.  The programme involves eight developers. Four are from outside Britain, including two from the U.S., one from Denmark and one from the Netherlands. It is hoped that the international focus will attract foreign investment to the UK.

The chosen developers are: Clearpower Technologies (WaveBob); Ocean Power Delivery (Pelamis); SeaVolt Technologies (Wave Rider); AquaEnergy (AquaBuOY); Lancaster University (PS Frog); Evelop (Wave Rotor); Embley Energy (Sperboy); Wave Dragon (Wave Dragon). The Carbon Trust also plans to carry out discrete work packages such as shoreline OWC, tidal stream, and marine energy design codes and standards, to supplement the direct technology assessment.

Tom Delay, CEO Carbon Trust, commented, ‘As yet no country has taken a leading position in marine energy. A relatively small investment now could make a significant impact to the UK’s competitive position due to the early-stage of technology development.’ 

He noted that recent research by the Carbon Trust had highlighted the potential for the UK to become a global leader in marine energy. The UK is ideally placed because of its huge exploitable natural resources; a high concentration of early-stage developers; and significant indigenous human capital applicable to the development of marine energy.

He added ‘The Marine Energy Challenge will really show whether there is potential for marine energy development and, if there is, put the UK at its forefront. The main barrier to the UK achieving such a position is confirmation that the emerging marine energy devices could become cost-competitive against other renewables and ultimately base-load fossil fuelled power generation.’

The objectives of the Marine Energy Challenge are to review devices and concepts to establish the potential of wave and tidal devices to become cost-competitive, and to engage engineering design companies to produce detailed engineering reports on wave and tidal technology which are more accurate than in the past. It will also provide a clear picture of the cost and performance of the types of device and clarify barriers to commercialization.

At the Bristol Wave and Tidal conference, RegenSW  announced their 50,000 Wave Hub- a sea-bed mounted grid -linked socket system into which developers could feed power, thus saving on separate links.  More in Renew 150.

* The Carbon Trust was created to work with business to reduce carbon emissions. It receives £50 m p.a. from government sources.

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