It appears that post-recession Britain has set its sights on being a leader in energy power in Europe. The feeling was strengthened in a statement released by the Department for Energy and Climate Change announcing that interested parties are now invited to bid for access to the Marine Renewables Proving Fund, the formation of which was originally announced in July of this year. The UK government has invited marine-energy firms to bid for a share of the £22 million fund, intended to stimulate the development of clean green renewable energy technology in the UK.

According to energy and climate change minister Lord Hunt, the scope for generating wave and tidal energy around the UK’s shores is massive. The government intends to work closely with local developers to further the goals of the necessary technologies.

"The Proving Fund will help marine projects get off the drawing board and into the water, taking them a vital step closer to full-scale commercial viability." Lord Hunt pointed out.

The fund is due to be overseen by the Carbon Trust, a unit formed in 2003 to act as the UK government’s climate-change advisory body. To date, the Carbon Trust has assessed around 60 different marine-energy harvesting devices and earmarked over £12 million in funding for the sector.

Earlier this month, the Carbon Trust announced that they intend to fund two marine-energy companies, Pelamis Wave Power and Marine Current Turbines, as part of its existing Marine Energy Accelerator initiative. The Pelamis Wave Energy Converter is UK-funded and developed by a UK company. It has been likened by the Carbon Trust to a vast sea-snake.

The Carbon Trust remain confident that the wave-power industry could eventually create up to 16,000 green jobs and £2 billion in annual revenue when it reaches its peak in the middle of the 21st century In the meantime, the Department for Business Innovation and Skills have announced plans to create about 1,500 graduate placements to help support the marine-energy industry.

Technology companies, among them IBM and Cisco are reported to be targeting the renewable energy market. They have already announced their plans to aid utility providers to update their electricity grids. This will be necessary to cope with the intermittent nature of power generated by wave sources.

In the same area of activity, it was announced that Aquamarine Power, a wave energy developer, has succeeded in raising £10 million from UK and Irish-based investors.

The investment interest in Aquamarine Power was generated following the announcement in August that a full scale demonstrator of Aquamarine’s Oyster wave energy converter has now been successfully deployed. It is situated in the company’s testing berth at the European Marine Energy Centre in the Orkney Islands.

Work is currently underway to connect Oyster to sub-sea pipelines which will deliver high pressure water to an onshore turbine. The company expects the system to begin generating power to allow offshore testing later this year.

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Tags: Aquamarine Power, Carbon Trust, Cisco, Department for Business Innovation and Skills, Department for Energy and Climate Change, Economy, European Marine Energy Centre, IBM, Lord Hunt, Marine Current Turbines, Marine Renewables Proving Fund, marine-energy, Oyster, Pelamis Wave Power, post-recession Britain, renewable energy, sea-snake, tidal energy, UK government