The Irish marine energy industry has called on Dublin to implement new funding schemes for pre-commercial wave and tidal developers.
The Marine Renewables Industry Association made a series of recommendations ahead of its annual conference today which it says would address the “funding gap” for device and sub-system developers in medium stages of development.
A discussion paper calls for the input of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, the IDA and Dublin’s Strategic Investment Fund.
MRIA said: “There is a pathway to technical solutions but it will need government and international funding and it will probably take another 10-15 years before reliable ocean energy engineering solutions are able to generate electricity at scale and large-scale commercial development can begin.”
It pointed out that “notable funding has been injected into the sector during a difficult time for the broader Irish economy” but said “major technical issues have been encountered and technology convergence has not occurred so far in wave” unlike tidal, where trends are more positive.
Image: SXC
