Industry group Marine Energy Council (MEC) has announced 13 new “Lead Partners” to support its ambition to make the UK “the world leader in tidal stream and wave energy.”
Established in 2018, the MEC says it has been instrumental in improving the investment landscape for marine energy in the UK. It has secured three successive tidal stream ringfences in the UK’s Contracts for Difference auction rounds, and raised the profile of wave energy’s role in the future energy mix.
The Lead Partnership model was introduced for 2024/25 to support the organisation’s expansion and increase its capacity. Lead Partners will take positions on the MEC’s board and provide strategic direction to the group’s activities.
They are: CorPower Ocean, the European Marine Energy Centre, HydroQuest, HydroWing, Leask Marine, Magallanes Renovables, Minesto, Morlais, Nova Innovation, Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult, Spiralis Energy, Scottish Renewables and Wave Energy Scotland.
Welcoming the Lead Partners, chair of the MEC Sue Barr said: “Tidal stream and wave energy can have a key role in delivering the UK’s net zero ambitions. The MEC was created to give tidal stream and wave energy a voice and support efforts to make the UK attractive to investors and technology developers from around the world.
“Thanks to the support of our Lead Partners our work can continue. With a world-leading pipeline of tidal stream projects, and significant wave energy resource, I look forward to working with the Lead Partners and the new Board in realising the UK’s marine energy potential.”
Funding marine energies
Offshore wind led previous CfD rounds, with auction round 4 (AR4) seeing offshore wind secure almost 7GW across five projects. There were four tidal projects that won contracts in AR4 with a total capacity of 41MW.
No offshore wind projects bid in the fifth auction round (AR5) but the 95 projects awarded funding included a record number of tidal projects, including a 4.9MW project from Verdant Morlais Ltd (VML) and a 10MW one by Inyanga Marine Energy Group.
Inyanga Marine Energy owns the patented HydroWing technology, one of the MEC’s new Lead Partners, which introduced a new barge technology to help cut tidal energy operation and maintenance costs.
Inyanga and VML signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the end of June to collaborate to create a 4.9MW tidal stream energy project at Morlais, Wales. Inyanga will deliver a full engineering, procurement, and construction solution to VML and a long-term operations and maintenance contract.
AR6 includes a £105 million pot for Floating Offshore Wind, Geothermal, Tidal Stream, Wave, Advanced Conversion Technologies (ACT), Anaerobic Digestion (AD) (>5MW), and Dedicated Biomass with CHP.
Indeed, investment in the marine energy sector is seeing some growth. Last year, a report by Marine Energy Wales revealed that the marine energy sector received a record-breaking £103.4 million in investments and spending in 2022, almost quadruple the previous year’s figure.
