By Ben Schiller

You could make a good case for Scotland being the center of the global marine energy industry. With perfect roiling seas, a well-funded testing and research hub, and consistent support from U.K. and Scottish governments, startups are experimenting with many intriguing wave and tidal devices--as the slide show of some of the most intriguing devices above testifies.

The bad news is that it's unlikely any of these designs will produce much power before 2015. Aside from testing, the companies still have to work on bread-and-butter issues like getting power to land, rigging the devices into cost-effective "arrays," developing an installation and maintenance infrastructure, and negotiating the proper insurance.

But the good news is that it's likely to happen some day--which is an improvement on a few years ago, when the industry looked, well, dead in the water. Startups point in particular to backing from some of Europe's most important engineering and energy companies--names like Siemens, ABB, and Alstom, which have all made, or upped, investments recently.

An August report (PDF) said marine could produce 75 terrawatt hours per year by 2050, or about 10% of overall U.K. demand. Marine energy may still be a bit zany and a bit niche for some tastes. But Scotland, especially, is showing it has a future.

2 Comments

1. 1. getdave 05:16 PM 10/9/12

   Tidal energy has considerable promise as the total amount of energy available is very large. Some locations that have big tidal movements are more suited to this. The challenges, however, are not just technological. Environmental regulations and concerns about wildlife present greater obstacles. Like wind power, what at first blush seems like free energy, really has costs to the environment that may not be noticeable until large scale installations are built. The answer is distributed generation where many small sources of power are put on the grid. This not only has the advantage of minimizing impact on any single environment, it has the added advantage of being less prone to terrorist attack, manipulation by private or governmental agencies, and price fixing. We need all of these generation technologies on a small scale widely distributed to ensure energy freedom and reliable generation.

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2. 2. btschiller 09:21 AM 10/10/12

   Sisko - i'm not an expert on finance, but as i understand it, venture capital is not the only game in town. these projects (see http://www.fastcoexist.com/1680663/8-crazy-ocean-power-plants-that-make-energy-from-the-sea#1 for more info) are funded off the balance sheets of large industrial companies. utilities and engineering companies are doing it because they see an opportunity to sell technology, or because they have a legal requirement to produce so much renewable power. I don't think anyone is saying marine energy is nuclear fusion. but, under the proper conditions, with consistent backing, a lot of people think it can be made to work. for smaller countries, like Scotland, or remote places like Alaska, or northern Canada, or down the coast of Chile, marine could play a significant, local role.
   
   the big advantage of marine over wind is its predictability; you don't have the same intermittency issues. the real issue is to do it at a scale that makes it economic. today's marine plants are like wind turbines of 10 years ago. they are small, but they are going to get bigger, and they are going to be grouped into farms, making power extraction, maintenance, etc, more viable.
   
   You are right in one thing you said: "Plans that are worthwhile for energy production get implemeted." (sic) That's why marine energy is being implemented. In Scotland.
   

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