In preparation for the 4th International Tidal Energy Summit coming to London on 23rd-24th November, Tidal Today on behalf of the tidal energy industry is looking to present an Open Letter/ Petition to Rt Hon Chris Huhne, MP and the UK’s Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.
The letter calls for further support for this renewable energy sector. Tidal Today is inviting individuals and companies to sign the petition that will be presented to the government before the conference.
The letter outlines that tidal stream energy is clean, secure and abundant, especially in the UK. “If Britain is first to develop its resource, it will create a whole new industry, supporting thousands of highly skilled jobs, sustaining and boosting the engineering sector, and playing a key part in economic recovery,” states the Open Letter.
The petition also highlights that the scale of investment required to make that a reality should not be underestimated and billions of pounds of private money will need to flow into projects and the supply chain, but investors currently cannot see the way forward.
“The resource will not go away, but the opportunity to maximise the benefit to the UK will disappear if we do not press on with this as hard as we can manage ” warns Neil Kermode, Managing Director, The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC). ”This is ours to throw away or lose and if we don’t keep hold of it others will wrest it from our hands. We blew the opportunity to have a wind industry. If we want to have a new, sustainable green industry then we must not make the same mistake,” says Kermode.
Clarity of support is also urged. “The government needs to give clear messages of support alongside a financial framework,” says Frank Fortune of Royal Haskoning. “The industry needs continued support over a significant period. Talk is cheap that is why it is so important to know what the ongoing structure will be,” he concludes. Peter Fraenkel of Marine Current Turbines agrees and has his own view over the current arrangement of ROCS/ MWh in the UK. “Two ROCS/MWh for tidal stream projects in all of the UK (except Scotland, where there are 3 ROCS/MWh on offer), is inadequate and will fail to provide what is needed to kick-off an industry,” says Fraenkel
“All the talk about the UK or Scotland leading the world in the marine renewables field is meaningless in the absence of the incentives needed to attract investment for early stage projects. Without effective support to underpin finance for projects – i.e. the so-called “Valley of Death”- all the earlier R&D investment by government in small projects and test centres will be wasted as this technology will fail to be developed to the stage where it can be commercially useful and it will go the same way as the former UK wind turbine industry and the UK photovoltaics industry.
“In other words, it will disappear and we will eventually have to import it (if our future balance of payments permits),” he says.
Government support at this juncture of the industry’s development is vital. While the Prime Minister has spoken passionately about making this the “greenest Government ever” by giving “the power industry the confidence it needs to invest in low carbon energy projects”, the industry is speaking out and calling for genuine “action”, according to Tidal Today Director, Abbie Badcock.
The participants of the 4th International Tidal Energy Summit and those serving the industry at large would like the Energy Minister to consider the ‘Open Letter’ and petition as a show of its commitment to drive the industry forward to its next stage of growth.
To read the letter and to sign the petition, please go to the Tidal Today website http://www.tidaltoday.com/tidal-conference/petition.shtml
Abbie Badcock, Director of Tidal Today is available for comment.
Contact: Abbie Badcock; abbie@tidaltoday.com; +44 (0) 207 375 7581
