UK Tidal Power Projects To Share $35 Mln Grant
Date: 03-Feb-10
Country: UK
Author: Daniel Fineren
LONDON - Six promising marine energy technologies will share 22 million pounds ($35.04 million) of UK government funding to speed up deployment of full scale prototypes, the Carbon Trust said on Tuesday.
The independent company set up by the government to accelerate the move to a low carbon economy hopes the funding will help make marine energy technologies ready for mass deployment by 2020 and keep Britain's lead in the fledgling industry.
It has selected Atlantis Resources, Aquamarine Power, Hammerfest Strom UK, Marine Current Turbines, Pelamis Wave Power and Voith Hydro to receive funding from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).
"Generating electricity from the UK's powerful wave and tidal resource not only plays a crucial role in meeting our climate change targets but also presents a significant economic opportunity for the UK," Tom Delay, chief executive of the Carbon Trust, said.
Analysis by the body, set up in 2001 to lead Britain's efforts to fight climate change, shows a quarter of the world's wave and tidal technologies are being developed in the UK.
Britain has trailed far behind countries like Spain and Germany in developing low-carbon technology industries like wind and solar and wants to avoid losing its lead on marine energy.
"The UK is in pole position to lead the innovation and commercialization of this secure energy source, which will keep our economy competitive," Greenpeace UK director John Sauven said.
"The Carbon Trust grants will give a much needed boost and to build on them we need all political parties to show their full commitment to achieving Britain's renewable energy targets."
Britain could struggle to hit its target of getting 15 percent of its energy from renewable resources within the next decade, according to a government report.
Aquamarine Power said it was awarded 5.1 million pounds to support the manufacture of its second generation wave energy device, Oyster 2, which will be built this year for testing at the European Marine Energy Center (EMEC) in Orkney.
Norwegian tidal power developer Hammerfest Strom AS said it was awarded 3.9 million to build and test its one-megawatt (MW) tidal power at EMEC, off the north-east coast of Scotland.
The company will work with ScottishPower Renewables to integrate it into a 10-MW tidal power farm in the Sound of Islay by 2012.
"The grant from the Carbon Trust will enable the first deployment of the turbine in Scottish waters ... to take advantage of the fantastic tidal resources that Scotland has to offer," Keith Anderson, director of ScottishPower Renewables, said.
The public money awarded on Tuesday comes in addition to 12 million pounds in funding for marine energy from the Carbon Trust to date.
(Editing by William Hardy)
