Weekly Intelligence Brief

Developers to bid for £22m in new grants

7 October 2009

The UK government has invited wave and tidal developers to bid for £22 million in new government funding to accelerate the commercial development of marine energy.

The funding follows demand from industry and analysis by the Carbon Trust which has shown that extra support is needed to take marine devices successfully from initial prototype development through to early–stage commercial generation, where they are eligible for funding from the Marine Renewables Deployment Fund.

The Marine Renewables Proving Fund, announced in July as part of the Government’s Renewable Energy Strategy, will be designed and delivered by the Carbon Trust and will provide finance for the demonstration of wave and tidal technologies. Project bids will be assessed and managed by the Carbon Trust.

Recently, in an interview with Tidal Today, Atlantis Resources Corporation’s CEO Timothy Cornellius mentioned that governments should focus on supporting developers in the short term through offsetting the cost of proving 1+MW systems for at least 24 months. The cost of deploying a commercial scale turbine and the associated transmission infrastructure required to evacuate power can be prohibitively expensive, hence merit based financial assistance is required to facilitate proof of commercial ready status, Cornelius had said.

For its part, the UK government also intends to publish its Marine Action Plan early next year. This initiative is expected to make the mass deployment of marine energy technologies a reality.

Read more:

Carbon Trust: http://social.tidaltoday.com/search/node/Carbon+Trust

Atlantis Resources: http://social.tidaltoday.com/search/node/Atlantis+Resources