TABLE OF CONTENTS So-called marine renewables encompass devices that tap the energy of either tides or waves. The term is also used sometimes to refer to offshore wind as they share some development issues, such as making the equipment sufficiently robust to withstand the marine environment or transporting the power from an offshore generation site to the users on land. This chapter focuses on the wave and tidal sectors.
Although the possibility of generating power from these natural resources has been recognized for decades, it is only in the last decade or so, with the growth of interest in renewables in general, that large-scale deployment has been regarded as more than a remote possibility.
In the last few years, however, the view has changed. A large number of devices have been proposed that could abstract power from waves or from either the regular movement of the tides or so-called tidal races, where the tide forces seawater through a narrow channel between two areas of sea.
The UK has been investing in this developing sector for several years, driven by the large energy resources that are almost certainly available to be tapped from areas in the North Sea. The region has been an energy powerhouse for the UK for several decades, thanks to its extensive gas and oil reserves, but the end of production is already in sight: in the next few years the majors will begin to abandon worked-out sources,...
