Marine Renewable Energy—An Update
15 February 2007 London Evening Meeting
Chairman Dr John Sharp, Cranfield University
Sponsored by E.ON UK
Report
by Adrian How
Overview
Renewable energy from marine sources—here wave and tidal power—is expected to be a key component of the future UK mix of energies. Offshore UK, there is one of the richest resources in both tidal stream and wave energy in the world. There is also a strong read-across from the oil and gas sector for many of the technologies needed to enable this nascent industry to work reliably and effectively in UK waters. However, the industry is still at an early stage when compared with, say, wind energy which is now long established onshore and is moving rapidly offshore, albeit in shallow coastal waters. The meeting's talks reviewed where we have got to go, the technology and other challenges and where we expect to be in the future.
Presentations
Marine Renewable Energy—An Update
Nick Murphy, E.ON UK
Setting the scene—the view of marine renewables from the perspective of the UK's largest integrated energy company.
Richard Boud, Entec UK
Wave energy devices—how they work, the Wave Hub project and PowerBuoy®
Marine Renewable Energy: Progress with Tidal Turbines
Peter Fraenkel, Marine Current Turbines Ltd
Tidal current turbines, the resource, the devices and the latest developments, particularly for SeaGen, the most commercially advanced tidal generator.