The Carbon Trust's current marine energy initiative is the Marine Energy Accelerator.
This aims to accelerate progress in cost reduction of marine energy (wave and tidal stream energy) technologies, to bring forward the time when marine energy becomes cost-competitive so that significant carbon emissions reductions are achieved.
The project follows on from the Marine Energy Challenge and the Carbon Trust report published last year (Future Marine Energy, January 2006) which highlighted that marine energy could supply up to 20% of the UK’s electricity needs. The costs of marine energy are currently higher than conventional and other alternative energy sources, reflecting the early stage of technologies. However, the report found there is potential for costs to reduce considerably in future and for the technologies to become competitive with other generation forms.
The project will help industry accelerate cost reduction by supporting:
- Development of new marine energy device concepts with potential for significantly lower costs than front-runner technologies;
- Research and development into specific component technologies of marine energy devices that are common causes of high costs; and
- Development of low cost installation, operation and maintenance strategies for marine energy devices.
The project will involve device developers, component technology manufacturers, engineering consultants/contractors and academic research groups. Overall, up to £3.5m of support is available for the project.
Organisation
Overall project
Points A to C above represent three strands of activity. Several projects will be undertaken within each strand, involving different combinations of organisations, as indicated below. 
Nature of activities
In Strand A, developers of marine energy devices will work with engineering consultants/academic research groups that have expertise in marine energy. The work will be to increase and validate the technical evidence about costs and performance that substantiates the devices’ costs of energy. Projects may involve a combination of costing exercises and engineering analysis, design and testing activities. To a certain extent, the work may also include design improvements to reduce costs, where the potential for such improvements becomes apparent through the validation work. However, the focus will be on proving the costs of energy of the existing designs.
In Strand B, developers/manufacturers of component technologies that are used in marine energy devices and academic research teams with expertise relevant to these technologies will work individually or with each other. The work will be to conduct research into the component technologies to understand how to make them more suitable for marine energy devices, particularly to reduce the devices’ costs of energy. Projects will include liaison with device developers to determine appropriate specifications and involve a combination of scientific and engineering analysis, testing and product development activities.
In Strand C, developers of marine energy devices will work with offshore engineering consultants/contractors that have particular expertise in offshore engineering.
The work will be to advance the developers’ strategies for offshore operation of their devices, with the aim of minimising costs in order to reduce the devices’ costs of energy. Projects will involve engineering analysis and design activities related to either overall offshore operations strategies or certain key parts within them. To a certain extent, the work may also include development of associated technologies (e.g. moorings), but this will be in the context of overall offshore operations strategies.
|