The Isles of Scilly are located in waters off the coast of south-west England.
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A year-long research project focusing on the potential of tidal, wave and floating wind technology in waters off the coast of England supported Marine-i, a program that focuses on innovation in areas such as marine energy.
The project will be based on the Isles of Scilly, an archipelago off the south-west coast of England, led by Isles of Scilly Community Venture, Planet A Energy and Waves4Power.
In a statement earlier this week, Marine-i – which is partly funded by the European Regional Development Fund – said the overarching goal of the Isles of Scilly initiative is to build a new database of wave and tidal source data.
This data contains information on a range of measures, including wave height, wind speed and tidal current velocities. Marine-i support comes in the form of giving the consortium access to experts at its partners: the University of Exeter, the University of Plymouth and the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult.
“As marine power is located for us about 30 miles off the south west coast of England, it could make Scilly self-sufficient in energy,” Jim Wrigley, Isles of Scilly Community Venture, said Tuesday.
An obstacle to this, however, is that the key data that developers need to assess its viability does not currently exist in the required level of detail, ” he added.
Wrigley said the new database “could be the key to unlocking truly exciting green energy solutions for Scilly.”
Marine energy
With miles and miles of coastline, it is perhaps no surprise that the UK is home to a number of projects and initiatives related to marine energy.
Last month it was announced that about £ 7.5 million ($ 10.3 million) of public funding would be used to support the development of eight wave energy projects led by UK universities.
In March, the Port of London Authority was also given the chance to experiment with tidal energy technology in a section of the Thames, which could ultimately help carbon-free the operations associated with the river.
Research and development on these types of technologies is not limited to the United Kingdom. This week, the marine energy industry Minesto, which is developing a tidal energy project in the Faroe Islands, said the DG100 power station has delivered a new electricity network at new record levels “during recent productions.
And in February, it was announced that a turbine built and tested in Scotland had been installed in waters off a Japanese island chain. In a statement at the time, London-listed firm Simec Atlantis Energy said its lead turbine produced 10 megawatts in the first ten days of operation.
There is increasing interest in marine energy systems, but it should be noted that the current footprint of these technologies remains small.
Recent figures from Ocean Energy Europe show that only 260 kilowatts (kW) of tidal power was added in Europe last year, while only 200 kW of wave energy was installed.
By contrast, according to industry body WindEurope, 2020 installed 14.7 gigawatts of wind energy capacity in Europe.