ORKNEY & THE PENTLAND FIRTH SPOTLIGHT ON
A PIVOTAL YEAR FOR MARINE ENERGY
2014 will be a pivotal year for the wave and tidal industry.
This is a phrase we have heard before, or something similar – but there is no doubt in my mind that the coming 12 months will be critical in the development of this exciting sector.
2013 PROGRESS
2013 saw some quite remarkable progress – 11 devices undergoing testing at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney, five tidal devices using the new quayside at Hatston Pier, the world’s first fully consented wave farm in the Western Isles, and the world’s largest consented tidal project in the Pentland Firth.
At the same time, all of the public sector agencies with a stake in the industry have helped put the appropriate policy support in place – capital grants to tidal projects through the UK Marine Energy Array Demonstrator scheme and for wave technologies through the Scottish Marine Energy Commercialisation Fund; further financial support from the Crown Estate and the Renewable Energies Investment Fund; a new leasing round from the Crown Estate and a positive £305 MWh tariff, which we hope will be ring-fenced for the first 100MW of development in the coming years.
EXCITING BUT CHALLENGING It is an exciting landscape, but there are considerable challenges ahead, and in 2014 I believe we must tackle the major ones – technology, finance and grid – head on.
With technology, we have begun to see major progress in the tidal sector, with a number of developers beginning to rack up megawatt hours on the meter. This is immensely positive, and gives confidence to the large industrial investors this industry needs. For wave, the picture is less clear. Flagship technologies have shown they can generate power, but reliability is a major hurdle and we need to find ways to help them, and other less mature technologies, design, build and test machines in the most effective way possible.
www.wavetidalenergynetwork.co.uk
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