Government support for marine energy sector swells with £22m fund

The Marine Renewables Proving Fund, first announced in July as part of the Government’s Renewable Energy Strategy, will provide finance for the at-sea demonstration of cutting-edge wave and tidal technology prototypes.

The fund has been launched in response to demands from the UK renewable energy sector and research showing that extra support is needed to help marine devices make the crucial step from initial prototype development through to early-stage commercial generation.

Announcing the launch of the fund yesterday, Energy and Climate Change Minister, Lord Hunt, said: “The Proving Fund will help marine projects get off the drawing board and into the water, taking them a vital step closer to full-scale commercial viability."

Project bids will be assessed and managed by the Carbon Trust, which to date has assessed or worked with over
60 different marine energy devices and committed over £12 million of funding. The Carbon Trust recently announced it is to support two businesses, Pelamis Wave Power and Marine Current Turbines, in the development of wave technology, as part of its existing Marine Energy Accelerator initiative. Support will focus on reducing costs associated with the installation, operations and maintenance of marine energy devices.

The Carbon Trust has offered bullish support for this part of the renewable energy sector, claiming that with 25 per cent of the world’s wave technologies already being developed in the UK, 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.

Tom Delay, chief executive of the Carbon Trust, commented: “Wave and tidal power is a fantastic resource for the UK that could provide up to 20 per cent of our current electricity demand and cut carbon dioxide by tens of millions of tonnes.

"There are many exciting technologies in development; however, for these to reach commercial viability we need to focus on cost reduction and make mass deployment a reality. The targeted support provided by the Marine Renewables Proving Fund is a much-needed boost to the UK’s clean tech revolution.”

Meanwhile, the Technology Strategy Board, announced that it will be launching a competition in the spring of 2010 to facilitate the development and application of innovative wave and tidal technologies.

The competition will be at the centre of a programme complementing the Marine Renewables Proving Fund activity.

In a further push to the UK wave power sector, the Government has announced that it intends to publish its Marine Action Plan early next year in order to generate maximum economic benefit. The plan will set out the key steps that will need to be taken by both Government and industry to make the mass deployment of marine energy technologies become a reality in the UK.

The Renewable Energy Association has welcomed the launch of the Proving Fund, but said the Government still needed to do more for the sector, including undertaking a strategic environmental assessment for wave and tidal around the UK to boost investor confidence and raising the banding to five Renewable Obligation Certificates per megawatt hour for wave and tidal. It has also called for wave and tidal devices up to five megawatts in size to be included in the feed-in tariffs, when they come into play next year.