Britain is sailing closer to harnessing the vast energy in its seas to power its low carbon future, with the announcement today that the south-west is to become the UK’s first Marine Energy Park.

The South West Marine Energy Park, which aims to accelerate the commercialisation of marine power, will stretch from Bristol to Cornwall and as far as the Isles of Scilly.

Facing the broad Atlantic swell and prevailing winds from the west, the south-west is known by sailors and surfers alike for its strong winds and huge oceanic waves.

The biggest waves are found off the north Cornish coast, around the Isles of Scilly and out towards the Western Approaches, but it also has a very large tidal range, especially in the Bristol Channel, which generates good tidal stream flows off north Devon, along the south coast from Portland and around the region’s headlands.

Around the UK, DECC estimates that our seas have the potential to generate up to 27GW of power by 2050, equivalent to the power generated from eight coal-fired power stations.

Now, following a lot of preparatory work, climate change minister Greg Barker has visited Bristol and launched the initiative with key partners in national and local government, Local Enterprise Partnerships, the Universities of Plymouth and Exeter and industry including Cornwall’s famous Wave Hub.

Greg Barker said this was "a real milestone for the marine industry and for the South West region in securing its place in renewables history".

"The south west can build on its existing unique mix of renewable energy resource and home-grown academic, technical and industrial expertise", he said, to support "thousands of jobs in a sector worth a possible £15bn to the economy to 2050".

It follows news at the beginning of the year that the Crown Estate, which owns the seabed surrounding the UK, has reduced the burden of financial guarantees it requires from wave and tidal developers to obtain a lease option, from £25 million to £5 million, making it much cheaper.

Furthermore, a week ago, the Department of Energy and Climate Change closed a consultation that proposes that support for wave power should more than double from 2 ROCs per MWh to 5 ROCs per Mwh, making it more viable for companies to take a risk by investing in the new technologies.

A South West Marine Energy Park prospectus, commissioned by Cornwall Council and Plymouth City Council, outlines how the region’s public and private sector will work together with the government and other key national bodies such as the Crown Estate.

It is produced by Regen SW, whose programme director, Johnny Gowdy, said that he hoped the South West Marine Energy Park would "be at the forefront of the new global marine energy industry”.

The news was warmly welcomed in the region. The leader of Plymouth City Council, Councillor Vivien Pengelly, spoke of the opportunity for growth it represented, and the "major opportunity" to generate investment and jobs.

"Plymouth has world-class research and development expertise in this field along with a strong marine business base and advanced manufacturing sector and looks forward to working closely with its private and public sector partners to make the South West Marine Energy Park a success,” he said.

Other areas of the UK, such as in the Pentland Firth and Orkneys, are working on developing a marine energy park based on their own regional strengths and activities.

It is likely that the first commercial wave farms of 10‑30 MW will be located off the north Cornish coast with grid connection into the sub-station at Hayle.

Ecotricity predicts cheapest ever energy from waves

Green energy company Ecotricity, known currently for being involved in wind and solar energy, has also today announced that it is moving into wave power by developing a new device called Searaser [the link is to an animation which takes a while to load].

The brainchild of Devon engineer Alvin Smith, Searaser harnesses the power of ocean swells to create electricity.

Smith argues that the main barrier to commercialising wave-power is making the electrical equipment resilient to the hostile ocean environment. Searaser avoids this.

“Most existing wave technologies seek to generate electricity in the sea itself. But Searaser uses the motion of the ocean swell to pump seawater through an onshore generator.”

It employs a vertical piston between two buoys, one on the surface of the water, the other suspended underwater and tethered to a weight on the seabed.

As the ocean swell moves the buoys up and down, the piston works like a bicycle pump to send volumes of pressurised seawater either to an onshore turbine to produce electricity or into a coastal storage reservoir.

From there, it can be released to a generator as required, thereby addressing the problem of renewable energy’s intermittent input into the electricity grid.

Greg Barker has hailed the invention as "great news”.

Ecotricity's Dale Vince said that his company’s investment will make a commercial scale version operational within 12 months, and install 200 Searasers around the British coastline within five years.

He added that he believes the device "has the potential to produce electricity at a lower cost than any other type of energy; not just of renewable energy but of all ‘conventional’ forms too”.

He is predicting that whereas natural gas turbines generate electricity within a cost range of 8–11p/kWh and onshore wind of 9.4p, one day Searaser will do so for under 2p per unit.

Support for marine energy

In the past seven years, £100 million has been invested in the south-west marine energy industry, to create world-leading research and demonstration facilities.

This has supported the development of the largest consented area for marine technologies in the world at Cornwall’s Wave Hub, the Fab–Test nursery site at Falmouth, the new marine science building at Plymouth and globally–leading research facilities at Exeter University and the National Composites Centre at Bristol.

Up to £20 million from DECC’s budget of over £200 million to fund low carbon technologies is earmarked to help develop marine devices.

Early-stage research and development funding is provided through the Research Councils’ SuperGen Marine programme.

Later-stage technology development and demonstration funding is provided through various bodies, such as the Technology Strategy Board (TSB), the Carbon Trust and the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI).