Marine energy needs £300m to drive development, says ORE Catapult

The tidal industry needs investment of £100 million and the wave industry almost £200 million to regain investor confidence in the sector, a report by the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult has said.

ORE Catapult said the investment from both public and private sectors was needed to get the first tidal arrays to financial close and drive the wave industry towards commercial readiness.

Funding for first arrays and technology proving has become less certain as investors have become either unwilling to invest or are pulling out due to the lack of clarity in the future of investment in the sector ORE Catapult said.

The report said that for the sector to regain investor confidence there should be a standardisation in the approach to technology development and a greater alignment of how these technologies are accessed. 

There also needs to be greater coordination in the industry, both between private and public sector investors and in due diligence for both projects and technologies.

ORE Catapult also said there was a potential role for governments in underwriting debt finance for the industry.

The marine energy sector could be cumulatively worth £76 billion to the UK economy by 2050 if investor confidence can be regained in the sector, ORE Catapult added.

ORE Catapult’s strategy and commercialisation director Dr Stephen Wyatt said: “Wave and tidal technologies represent a vital part of our future renewable energy mix but sector funding has reached a critical juncture and it is vital we act now.

“The Catapult is already working with industry and others, particularly academia, to focus research priorities around wider critical path components which have less to do with a developer’s intellectual property, and more to do with issues around reliability, health and safety, installation methodology, and electrical connections, to de-risk and drive down industry costs.