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Britain could capture quarter of global wave energy market

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Carbon Trust analysis highlights £76 billion opportunity for UK firms

Britain could capture a quarter of the global marine energy market if wave and tidal energy devices are successfully proven here and deployed internationally, according to the Carbon Trust.

The trust said new research it had carried out indicated that the marine energy sector could be worth up to £76 billion to the UK economy by 2050, creating more than 60,000 jobs. But this will only happen if wave and tidal energy technology is successfully developed at home and deployed overseas, the trust said.

Britain has an opportunity to win business in growing export markets for wave energy such as Chile, Korea and the US, the trust said, as well as Atlantic-facing European states where there are powerful waves or tidal currents. The Carbon Trust analysis found that total marine energy capacity could be 27.5GW in the UK by 2050, which could in theory supply the equivalent of more than a fifth of current UK electricity demand to the grid.

Benj Sykes, director of innovations at the Carbon Trust, said: “Marine energy could be a major ‘made in Britain’ success. By cementing our early mover advantage, the UK could develop a significant export market, generate thousands of jobs and meet our own demand for clean, home-grown electricity. 

“To maintain our world-leading position, we must continue to drive innovation within the industry and turn our competitive advantage in constructing and operating marine technology into sustained green growth.”

The analysis highlighted three areas of challenge for the industry: technology verification, cost reduction, and wider support among the public and manufacturing industry and supply chain.

The wave energy industry needed to continually innovate to push technologies along the path to commercial deployment, the trust said. Wave and tidal technologies are moving into full-scale demonstration, but this will need to be followed by deployment of the first multiple megawatt arrays.

Costs needed to be reduced so that marine energy could compete with other low carbon technologies. Targeted R&D will be required for this to happen, said the trust.

The UK features around 35 of the world’s 120-130 wave energy and tidal stream device developers.  British companies such as Pelamis, Aquamarine Power and Marine

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