Renewable Energy
Harvesting ‘low velocity’ ocean energy
Anders Jansson looks at how a new technology for harvesting energy from low velocity ocean and tidal currents boosts the potential for marine energy.
Anders Jansson observa cómo la nueva tecnología de recogida de energía de baja velocidad del océano y las corrientes impulsan el potencial de la energía marina.
Anders Jansson untersucht wie eine neue Technologie zur Nutzbarmachung langsamer Meeres- und Gezeitenströmungen das Potential der Meeresenergie steigert.
M
arine energy - for instance energy from tidal and ocean currents - is the ‘best of the best’ among green energy sources. It has the greatest
potential (in theory, the planet’s oceans could supply the entire world with renewable energy). Tidal and ocean current power plants are under water and therefore completely invisible. Tey produce electricity from 100 per cent renewable energy sources (the water in the globe’s oceans will always move around, well, at least until the sun swallows the moon). Tey are safe and the icing on the cake is that they actually have positive environmental effects. Positive? Yes, studies have shown that marine life thrive in marine energy parks. Te UK and Irish waters are especially promising for marine energy, due to the
islands’ geographical location. UK and Ireland can provide 25-50 per cent of total European marine energy, according to a new report from RenewableUK. Te marine energy industry has been forecast to be worth £6.1 billion to the UK economy by 2035, and displacing up to half a million tons of CO2
every year by 2020.
Te total amount of wave and tidal stream energy in UK and Irish waters is estimated at 935TWh/year. Of this, some 98TWh/year of marine energy resource has been assessed as being economically recoverable with today’s technologies. Te current UK annual electricity demand is about 350TWh/year. No wonder the UK and Ireland are frequently called ‘the Saudi Arabia of marine energy’. Other countries with great marine energy potential and political or commercial marine programmes already under way are the USA, Canada, China, France,
Fig. 1. Minesto’s Deep Green power plant is the only marine energy power plant in the world that can cost- efficiently harvest energy from low-velocity ocean and tidal currents.
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