RenewableUK and SI Ocean supply chain workshop

RenewableUK hosted a pre-All Energy workshop that reported SI Ocean's work to date, and discussed interaction between the supply chain and the wave and tidal sector.

Several reports were unveiled:

• David Krohn (RenewableUK) gave a summary of RenewableUK's recent report on the sector, alliteratively entitled: 'Conquering challenges, generating growth'.
• Henry Jeffery (University of Edinburgh) announced SI Ocean's technology status report, and asked for comments and feedback.
• Clare Hamner (Carbon Trust) announced SI Ocean's cost of energy report and also asked for feedback. In particular, she asked whether the forecast cost of energy with 1GW of installed capacity was viable.

In the supply chain discussion, there was a real sense of urgency in getting the sector off the ground. Conflicting viewpoints were expressed. Sometimes this lead to insight and consensus; sometimes to an almost tangible frustration about impasses lying on the road ahead.

Travel Info for All Energy

Why I'm not buying carbon compensation for the All Energy Opportunities event:

The Venue and Travel page on the All Energy site is a good example of how far we as a society have to go to achieve a low carbon economy.  

Wave and Tidal Knowledge Network

The Crown Estate have launched a website that gathers together useful information for wave and tidal developers: http://www.waveandtidalknowledgenetwork.com/.

This includes the most complete list of resource data to date.

Sleepwalking into an energy crunch

Featured talk from IET 'Wave and tidal: towards commercialisation' seminar.

Speaker: Martin Wright - Managing Director Aurora ventures Ltd, Chairman of Mojo Maritime and the Renewable Energy Association, a past Chairman of the Ocean Energy Group, and one of the founders of Marine Current Turbines Limited.

The talks in the IET seminar were all very good, but this one in particular left the audience stunned. Apart from the shock of hearing a venture capitalist tell us that venture capital was unsuitable for funding wave and tidal, he presented the audience with a compelling argument for future economic mayhem in Britain if marine renewables are not funded now, and then went on to explain why the funding was not forthcoming. 'All is not rosy' was a running theme. His claim that we are 'sleepwalking into an energy crunch', although bleak and somewhat apocalyptic, was based on solid arguments. The principle one being:

Those making the decisions about the UK's future energy mix do not shoulder the risk of hydrocarbon price volatility.