Carbon Trust has announced a £1m research initiative focusing on component technology innovation. It is part of a wider set of Carbon Trust activities to drive down costs in the marine energy sector and make marine power a commercial reality by 2020.
The trust, an independent company set up by the Government to tackle climate change, is investing £1m in five organisations to research component technology for marine energy, such as turbine blades and hydraulic power networks. Three of the five organisations are Scottish. They are MacTaggart Scott, an engineering firm in Edinburgh, Edinburgh University, and J P Kenny, part of the John Wood Group in Aberdeen.
The Carbon Trust's Marine Energy Accelerator is funded by the UK Environmental Transformation Fund (managed by the Department for Energy and Climate Change), the Scottish Government, the Welsh Assembly Government and Invest Northern Ireland.
Acknowledging that the cost of generating marine energy is currently high compared to other forms of more conventional generation and key components used in wave and tidal energy devices can make up as much as a third of the total device cost, it stated that giant turbine blades developed using technology from the aviation industry and underwater hydraulic power networks as used in the oil and gas industry are just two of the technologies that could be harnessed by the marine energy industry to generate cost effective renewable electricity to power homes and businesses across the UK.
Mark Williamson, director of Innovations at the Carbon Trust, said: "In the face of the economic downturn, these companies are at the forefront of an energy revolution that will see the creation of thousands of green collar jobs and a boost to the UK's economy. Our targeted funding will accelerate the marine energy sector's development and so speed its carbon saving potential which is vital to us in staying within the UK's carbon budgets."
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