ETI outlines priorities for competitive marine energy

 
Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) has set out its priorities for the UK’s marine energy industry if it is to compete with other low carbon sources of energy.

ETI believes the focus should be on exploiting tidal stream technology commercially as tidal stream has the potential to compete with other low carbon energy sources over the coming decade.

Other marine renewable sources are at a less developed stage and therefore carry with them higher costs, such as tidal lagoons which are currently in between the development stages of tidal stream and wave energy and require large levels of investment to demonstrate and then deploy at scale, according to ETI.

A successful agreement on a Contract for Difference (CfD) for tidal energy will be a crucial factor for marine renewables to succeed, ETI said, and support and encouragement should also be given to the MeyGen project for the industry to prosper.

However, when it comes to wave energy, ETI suggests wave energy developers should ‘radically’ reconsider their approaches to extraction and conversion to find ways that will drastically reduce costs, because, according to ETI, the technology is presently ten times more expensive than other low carbon alternatives.

Stuart Bradley, ETI’s Strategy Manager, said: “The UK has some of the best tidal waters in the world, but these are generally a long way from grid connections and major population centers where the demand is greatest.

“Whilst it has been demonstrated that you can create and capture energy from the sea it is currently very expensive to do so and this has to be addressed for the sector to grow.

“A rethink is required in wave to bring costs down, but the early signs are that bodies such as Wave Energy Scotland are tackling this challenge so support should continue to be provided to such work.

“The UK has some of the world’s best tidal and wave resources and we do lead the world in tidal and wave device development. But it remains an industry in relevant infancy. Policy makers need to review the evidence base and decide the exact contribution of marine energy to a future low carbon energy industry so the industry can move ahead, improve cost performance and contribute positively.”

The challenge for tidal stream energy identified by ETI comes from the distribution of the energy generated because many of the most powerful tidal sites are at remote locations so the source is often a long way from the end consumer. Therefore in the case of energy systems design, ETI foresees that it will work best serving inhabited coastal locations as a prime source of energy consumption.

In addition, ETI has released over 100 documents from its marine technology program on the research undertaken to date in this area to help inform the debate on marine energy in the UK, while the technical data and reports from projects delivered across its technology programs over the last 10 years will be published later in 2017.

ETI is a public-private partnership between global energy and engineering companies and the UK government acting as the link between academia, industry and the government to accelerate the development of low carbon technologies.