Britain leads in marine energy race, lags in wind

www.guardian.co.uk
June 4 2009

Britain is determined to harness its huge marine energy potential and export it around the world after blowing the opportunity to be a global wind energy leader.

The British Isles have some of the world's strongest tides, waves and winds but the country has trailed others including Spain and Germany in wind energy growth. Britain does have an early lead in the emerging marine energy technology and is testing the world's first full scale ocean energy converters - - the "sea snake" wave power generator developed by Pelamis Wave Power Ltd and and Marine Current Turbines' SeaGen tidal power turbines.

The government hopes Britain's marine energy developers can go on to be a commercial success. "We absolutely want to make the marine energy sector a success," Lord Hunt, the climate change minister, said. "We know the UK's traditional problem of technological lead but then not following through," he said at a marine energy conference.

Although Britain is home to most of the world's 80-100 marine energy companies, only a handful have installed devices at sea, while others are testing in tanks or on computers. The government said in its 2009 budget it would provide 405 million pounds ($600 million) to emerging low-carbon technology, such as marine energy, as part of efforts to cut its carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050 from 1990 levels.

The push follows Britain's failure to create a domestic wind turbine manufacturing base and slow progress in developing onshore windfarms which has left it trailing behind several European neighbours, China, India and the United States.

The country still hopes to build the world's largest forest of offshore wind turbines over the next decade but will have to import all the equipment to do it. "Lessons have been learned from the onshore wind," said Duncan Ayling, head of offshore at the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA), which also represents the nascent marine energy sector.

Pentland Firth, Wind Backup
In an ambitious move, the Crown Estate last year opened bids for the world's first large scale commercial tide and wave projects in Pentland Firth in northern Scotland.

The independent body, which owns most of the seabed around Britain's shores, plans to sign lease agreements by September and hopes Pentland Firth will have at least 700 MWs of wave or tidal power capacity installed by 2020 - - enough to supply about 600,000 homes with clean electricity. "It is an opportunity to shape up the new industry," Martin Simpson, head of the Crown Estate's project, said.

The government is also starting a Strategic Environmental Assessment in England and Wales to identify potential sites and estimate the marine energy potential. It is due by late 2011. Government adviser the Carbon Trust has calculated marine energy could eventually supply up to 20 percent of Britain's power without producing the climate-warming gases emitted by coal, gas or oil fired plants.

The BWEA estimates that marine energy could provide a similar share of the world's electricity and British firms are keen to cash in on the potentially huge export market. The industry could help replace jobs that may be lost over coming decades in other sectors, such as the offshore oil and gas industry that faces a rapid output decline in the North Sea. The endless, predictable tides of the oceans could reduce the need for coal or gas-fired power generators to be built as backup for windfarms that depend on unreliable winds.

Hostile Sea, Money
But marine technology is in its infancy and the devices being designed or tested come in varied shapes and sizes. It is still unclear which will become a commercial success. The Pelamis sea snake is a series of cylindrical sections linked by joints, which pump fluid through hydraulic motors as it undulates on the waves. Current models are 180 metres long.

Marine Current Turbines' technology works like submerged wind turbines placed on the seabed in places such as narrow channels, where tides are particularly strong. Oceans are hostile environments and the huge amounts of energy in the waves and tides that the pioneers are trying to harness also complicate installation and maintenance.

Both Pelamis and Marine Current Turbines have had to remove their devices from the water several times since their installation last year for adjustments. So far, nobody has been able to make use of the government's Marine Renewable Development Fund - - launched in 2004 - - as it requires three months of full operational data in sea, which means the devices would need to be at sea for about a year.

Although the government has promised the additional 405 million pounds of funds, it is unclear how it will be allocated. "These people who have developed these technologies need more money to stay in the water to prove they can actually survive in water," said Ayling. "If we want to get the world's leading export industry, we have to support it in early stages... We are not alone in this," he said, adding that Spain, Portugal, the United States and South Korea were adopting mechanisms to support the sector.