Britain leads in marine energy race, lags in wind  

The Guardian reports the British government is talking a good game on ocean energy though how long it takes anything real eventuates remains to be seen - Britain leads in marine energy race, lags in wind.

Britain is determined to harness its huge marine energy potential and export it around the world after blowing the opportunity to be a global wind power leader.
The British Isles have some of the world's strongest tides, waves and winds but the country has trailed others including Spain and Germany in wind energy growth. Britain does have an early lead in the emerging marine energy technology and is testing the world's first full scale ocean energy converters -- the "sea snake" wave power generator developed by Pelamis Wave Power Ltd and and Marine Current Turbines' SeaGen tidal turbines.

The government hopes Britain's marine energy developers can go on to be a commercial success. "We absolutely want to make the marine energy sector a success," Lord Hunt, the climate change minister, said. "We know the UK's traditional problem of technological lead but then not following through," he said at a marine energy conference.

Although Britain is home to most of the world's 80-100 marine energy companies, only a handful have installed devices at sea, while others are testing in tanks or on computers.

The government said in its 2009 budget it would provide 405 million pounds ($600 million) to emerging low-carbon technology, such as marine energy, as part of efforts to cut its carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050 from 1990 levels.

The push follows Britain's failure to create a domestic wind turbine manufacturing base and slow progress in developing onshore wind farms which has left it trailing behind several European neighbours, China, India and the United States.

The country still hopes to build the world's largest forest of offshore wind turbines over the next decade but will have to import all the equipment to do it. "Lessons have been learned from the onshore wind," said Duncan Ayling, head of offshore at the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA), which also represents the nascent marine energy sector.

In an ambitious move, the Crown Estate last year opened bids for the world's first large scale commercial tide and wave projects in Pentland Firth in northern Scotland. The independent body, which owns most of the seabed around Britain's shores, plans to sign lease agreements by September and hopes Pentland Firth will have at least 700 megawatts of wave or tidal power capacity installed by 2020 -- enough to supply about 600,000 homes with clean electricity.