The energy of waves - can we use it?
Renewable ocean power turns the tide
Later this year, the UK government is tipped to reform the "Contract for Difference" incentive mechanism so that wave and tidal power is calculated separately from offshore wind — low carbon marine energy projects will be subsidized to be price competitive, but this time without factoring in much cheaper offshore wind.
This is expected to be a significant indication for investors. "Once there's a market signal, then that's us out of the starting blocks as a sector," said Matthew Finn, commercial director at the Orkney-based European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), which has been testing and demonstrating tidal and wave energy device prototypes in the sea for nearly two decades. The hope is to make up ground on "first generation technologies like solar and wind that are pretty bankable now and attract a lot of finance," Finn said.