Two very different funding initiatives designed to speed the development of mari ...

Two very different funding initiatives designed to speed the development of marine energy in Britain were announced in December First, the world's biggest international innovation prizes, the £10mn Saltire Prize, is to be awarded to the team which successfully demonstrates - in Scottish waters - commercially viable wave or tidal technology, Details were released by the Scottish Government. The Prize will be awarded to the team that can demonstrate in Scottish waters a commercially viable wave or tidal energy technology that achieves a minimum electrical output of 100 GWh over a continuous two-year period using only the power of the sea, and is judged to be the best overall technology after consideration of cost, environmental sustainability and safety. Entries to the prize will be opened in the summer of this year. Meanwhile, the Carbon Trust has established a new, £1mn research initiative to focus on component technology innovation within the marine energy sector. The initiative is part of a wider set of Carbon Trust activities, the Marine Energy Accelerator, designed to drive down costs in the marine energy sector and make marine power a commercial reality by 2020. Ultimately, the global estimated value of worldwide electricity revenues from wave and tidal stream projects could be between £60 and £190bn a year, says the Trust, but the cost of generating marine energy is high compared to other forms of generation. Key components used in wave and tidal energy devices can make up as much as a third of the total device cost. The Trust is partnering with leading academic and industrial groups that bring expertise from outside of the marine energy field. The overall objective is to reduce the cost of marine energy by up to 20% by 2020. Last on the marine energy front, the world’s first commercial scale tidal stream turbine, developed by British tidal energy company Marine Current Turbines, has for the first time generated at its maximum capacity of 1.2 MW. This is the highest power so far produced by a tidal stream system anywhere in the world and exceeds the previous highest output of 300 kW produced in 2004 by Marine Current Turbines’ earlier SeaFlow system, off the north Devon coast. SeaGen was deployed in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough in May last year (see Energy World May 2008) and since then has undergone commissioning trials. As the device has now reached full power, it will move towards full-operating mode, for periods of up to 22 hours a day, with regular inspections and performance testing undertaken as part of the project’s development programme. The power generated by SeaGen is being purchased by Irish energy company, ESB Independent, for its customers in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.