The Crown Estate, which owns and manages most of the UK’s shore and seabed, has announced that it is making £20 million of funding available to develop new marine energy projects. Two wave or tidal energy projects will be selected from applications submitted by developers before the deadline of 15 February 2013.

Specifically, the Crown Estate is looking to develop projects that will construct marine arrays (multiple devices) capable of generating at least 3MW of renewable energy. To be eligible to apply for the funding, developers must already hold lease agreements for their projects with the Crown Estate and be expecting to receive final investment decisions by March 2014.

The announcement has been warmly welcomed by RenewableUK, the UK’s renewable energy trade body. Director of Offshore Renewables, Nick Medic, described the funding as enabling ‘...a crucial step forward – from successful individual devices to the deployment of full-scale arrays in the water’, adding that it will also ‘...attract the right level of private investment to commercialise the sector.’

The news comes at a time when renewable energy is reaching new heights of popularity with the public. A recent survey by the European Commission found that an impressive 70% of people want renewable energy to be prioritised over other generation methods in the next 30 years. In comparison, just 9% favoured ‘new’ fossil fuels such as shale gas, and 8% thought traditional fossil fuels (coal and gas) should be prioritised.

Wilding says: ‘More good news for the marine energy sector. As Nick Medic says, this funding should pave the way for wave and tidal energy to follow in the footsteps of offshore wind and become commercially viable on an industrial scale. It’s great to see growing public support for low carbon energy, too.’

Source: Renewable UK and Construction Index