The Marine Energy Council and Scottish Renewables have unveiled detailed price support mechanism proposals designed to allow wave and tidal technologies to deploy in UK waters.
The ‘UK Marine Energy 2019: a new industry’ report sets out the sector’s innovation power purchase agreement (iPPA) and innovation Contracts for Difference (iCfD) policies to provide market incentives for the technology.
The document proposes government-backed iPPAs for wave and tidal stream of up to 5MW with the scheme capped at 120MW overall.
The first iPPA projects would receive £290 per megawatt-hour, digressing by 15% at every 30MW allocation.
The iCfD is conceived as a bridging mechanism for wave, tidal, floating wind and advanced conversion technologies of between 5MW and 100MW unable to compete with offshore wind in regular CfD allocation rounds.
Marine Energy Council chairwoman Sue Barr said the technologies are “effectively locked out of the UK energy market”.
She added: “The industry has come together to deliver these recommendations to government, offering a sensible plan to scale-up the development of both tidal stream and wave power in the UK, and we look forward to working with them on these proposals over the coming months.”
Scottish Renewables chief executive Claire Mack said: “Getting the development pathway right means being able to increase the benefits the sector delivers, help balance our energy system and export more of our knowledge abroad – as well as cutting the costs of these innovative technologies.”