As Britain aims to now become the center of the marine energy industry, it seems that tidal power developments could be getting a little boost
Right now two of the UK’s leading marine energy companies will actually be receiving some funding from the Carbon Trust. Apparently these companies will be getting grants worth up to £400,000 to help scale up their technology and bring tidal power dreams just that much closer to reality.
The developer of the SeaGen tidal power device, Marine Current Turbines, is set to share the grants with Pelamis Wave Power, which is the maker of wave energy converters, of which look almost like giant snacks on the water. This money is suppose to help the companies be able to come up with more efficient ways to install their machines. Right now installation can account for almost half of the cost of a project. If this cost is brought down, Carbon Trust says that this kind of technology will be used more often.
As of now, tidal and wave power provide a fifth of the UK’s power needs. The Carbon Trust said that it has found that the UK was home to around a quarter of the world’s emerging wave technologies. Thus, the Carbon Trust believes that Britain should be the owner of the global wave power market. The grant is something that Carbon Trust believes will help Britain be able to reach this goal.
The Carbon Trust says that the global wave market could be worth more than £2 billion a year by 2050. Not only this, but it could also result in almost 16,000 jobs.
