Carbon Trust invests in efforts to bring down cost of deploying Pelamis and SeaGen

The Carbon Trust is investing £250,000 in technology that will reliably move a giant Pelamis electricity-generating ‘sea snake’ out to sea, and a further £150,000 towards a feasibility study into foundations technology to deploy MCT's 'SeaGen' tidal energy system.

The Carbon Trust is making the funds available through a new Marine Energy Accelerator programme, set up to help UK businesses search for new ways to install offshore wave and tidal power technology cost effectively.

According to the Carbon Trust, energy from wave and tidal power could provide up to 20 per cent of the UK's current electricity and has the potential to cut carbon dioxide by tens of millions of tonnes. Recent analysis by the Carbon Trust found that 25 per cent of the world's wave technologies are already being developed in the UK. The analysis also showed that Britain could be the 'natural owner' of the global wave power market, generating revenues worth £2 billion per year by 2050 and up to 16,000 direct jobs.

The key to unlocking this power, however,  is reducing the cost of infrastructure that allows deployment of wave and tidal energy technology, according to Mark Williamson, director of Innovations at the Carbon Trust. "Innovation in the deployment and maintenance of wave and tidal devices will be critical in cutting the cost of marine energy and unlocking the potential of this fantastic renewable energy resource," he said. "Our analysis shows that the UK is already leading the world in wave energy. If we can bring down the costs of deploying this technology, we will be able to generate marine energy on a scale that will help meet our 2020 renewable target and deliver significant economic value as well."

Reliably moving a 180-metre Pelamis electricity-generating ‘sea snake’ onto a mooring many kilometres offshore is a task that highlights the challenges of making marine energy a commercially viable method of generating renewable
energy. The Carbon Trust and Pelamis are investigating an innovative remotely operated vehicle that will assist with manoeuvring these giant machines into position. They will also integrate remote control technology into existing systems, which will enable deployment in rougher seas. These developments promise to significantly reduce vessel and equipment requirements and make installation and maintenance quicker, cheaper and safer, thereby reducing the overall cost of the energy generated.

Beth Dickens of Pelamis Wave Power said: "This project will allow more machines to be installed more often and more cheaply as we will not be as reliant on good weather conditions and specialist boats for the operation. We have had a successful working relationship with the Carbon Trust for a long time, so they were a natural port of call for help in developing this technology, which will help speed the deployment of our wave power devices."

The Carbon Trust is supporting MCT find a new method to deploy its Seagen device, the world's first commercially operated marine power plant. The technology involves a remotely operated subsea drilling platform that will install foundation piles in advance of the main turbine support structure being deployed in a single unit. This would enable smaller and less expensive support vessels to be used for the offshore works, reducing the costs of turbine installation.

The MCT technology is likely to be tested in a disused quarry, and if it performs as expected, will be used in SeaGen's next deployment off Anglesey where the company is working with RWE npower renewables to deploy a 10 megawatt tidal farm, using seven SeaGens.

Martin Wright, managing director of MCT, said: "The Carbon Trust's support [...] has enabled us to look at how we can install farms of our SeaGen tidal energy systems cheaper and more efficiently in the future. The trust's part-funding of the project underlines the commercial potential that exists for MCT's pioneering tidal energy technology to be deployed in UK waters as well as overseas."

Installation and maintenance currently account for up to 50 per cent of the project costs of wave and tidal energy and could delay more widespread deployment if they are not reduced.

The Marine Energy Accelerator programme brings together businesses involved in device development, component technology manufacture, engineering consultancy as well as academic research groups, in an attempt to accelerate cost reduction in the industry.