22 September 2009 – Speech – David Kidney at WATTS 2009 7th Annual Wave and Tidal Technology Symposium
I’m delighted to be here today to open this seventh Annual Wave and Tidal Technology Symposium.
I’m sure today’s conference will provide an ideal opportunity for catching up on developments and for networkinig: renew acquaintances, meet new people and share ideas and best practices. Our hosts, the REA, play a vital role in promoting and supporting the Marine Energy Sector through events like this, and of course, putting the views of the sector across to Government. Having looked at today’s conference programme, it highlights some very important issues affecting the Marine Energy sector today, such as legislative and financial incentives and protection of the environment.
Commitment to Renewables – RES
The Government is fully committed to supporting not just wave and tidal energy but renewable energy in total. The Government’s commitment is under-pinned by a coherent comprehensive low-carbon plan:
- Climate Change Act with legal obligations
- Carbon budgets
- UK Low Carbon Transition Plan
The Transition Plan plots how the UK will meet the 34% cut in emissions on 1990 levels by 2020, set out in the first three Carbon Budgets. We have already reduced emissions of greenhouse gases by 21% – equivalent the emissions of four cities the size of London.
2009 is a critical year for the global effort to tackle climate change, already a reality for millions of people around the world. Adapting to climate change already in progress is a serious issue. Avoiding further dangerous climate change is essential for global security and prosperity.
We are building towards the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting in Copenhagen in December, which offers a genuine chance to build the next international agreement for reducing climate change.
This Government has a track record of delivering on its legal obligation under the existing Kyoto Protocol. We are committed to taking a leadership role in forging and implementing a new agreement.
To meet our objective of keeping global temperature rises below 2 degrees C, the agreement at Copenhagen must be global and ambitious. This will mean nothing less than a 50% reduction in global emissions by 2050, overall, with developed countries accepting that they must shoulder a heavier burden, as is only moral, fair and equitable.
To deliver this deal we will need to transform our country into a cleaner, greener place to live. We need to be at the forefront of global renewable energy developments and ensure that the UK is ready to take advantage of the economic opportunities ahead.
In July, alongside the UK Low Carbon Transformation Plan we published our UK Renewable Energy Strategy. This strategy sets out how we all have a role to play in promoting renewable energy, from individuals to communities to businesses. No doubt some of you will have focused your attention on our announcement to invest up to an additional £60 million in UK marine energy infrastructure and technology. Officials are working with the New and Renewable Energy Centre (NaREC) in Northumbria, the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney and Wave Hub off the coast of Cornwall, to ensure that the monies allocated to them to improve and enhance the testing facilities available to the sector is spent in a way that benefits the sector and makes a difference.
Marine Renewables Proving Fund
We also announced that the Government will launch a £22 million Marine Renewables Proving Fund, enabling us to step in and help businesses bring on business ideas that are not yet at the stage of being able to benefit from the existing Marine Renewables Deployment Fund.
I am pleased to be able to give you further details on this fund. Lord Hunt is making the formal announcement in London and I can announce it here: marine energy developers can now apply for funding through the Carbon Trust who have designed and will be delivering the scheme on behalf of DECC.
A big challenge for the sector is moving marine energy technology through to a commercial stage. The Marine Renewables Proving Fund is designed to support and accelerate the demonstration of cutting edge devices. It is focused on driving forward the development of the technology to realize its potential and de-risking private investment to bring much needed capital into the sector. The scheme is primarily targeted at technology developers with well progressed concepts looking to develop full scale prototypes for deployment in UK waters in 2010 or 2011. The timescale when the Proving Fund will operate is short, so speed of implementation is important.
You will all be very aware that significant capital funds are needed to design, construct, deploy and commission full scale prototypes. The Proving Fund is intended to help you, the developer, to meet the capital cost of these activities by providing grant funding – likely in the region of up to £6 million per successful applicant. This funding will need to be matched to comply with State Aid rules. However, by providing up to 60% of the eligible project costs the Proving Fund will help attract and unlock private investment by de-risking that investment to secure an injection of much needed capital.
The Marine Renewables Proving Fund marks a new level of commitment to developing wave and tidal technologies. It will help the UK’s most promising technologies to progress towards early stage deployment, gain access to the Marine Renewables Deployment Fund and act as a catalyst for the first commercial projects in UK waters.
I’m sure many of you have lots of questions to ask on the Proving Fund and fortunately The Carbon Trust is here today with a conference slot at 4pm to answer any searching questions as well as explain in detail how the scheme will operate, how you can apply and how they will assess your application.
Further good news to bring to your attention is that the Technology Strategy Board, in recognition of the potential the marine energy sector offers and the need for support to be available for different stages on the path to commercialisation, will provide funding to complement the type of project supported under the Proving Fund. The Technology Strategy Board, working in conjunction with my Department and the Carbon Trust, will be providing targeted support for longer term projects through a new competition that will be launched in Spring 2010.
This competition will be specifically designed to sit along side, but not duplicate the Proving Fund and facilitate the development and application of innovative technologies which will support the marine sector’s key challenges and objectives including amongst other things:
- improved performance and efficiency,
- cost reduction, and
- development of new technologies.
The Technology Strategy Board will work with the marine community and its supply chain over the coming months to develop the full details of the competition.
Marine Action Plan
We also announced in our Renewable Energy Strategy our commitment to develop a Marine Action Plan.
The objective of this “Action Plan” is to set out a “Vision” for the Marine Energy sector to 2030 (with reference to 2020), outlining the actions required by both industry and the public sector to facilitate the development and deployment of marine energy technology and fulfill that “Vision”.
We recognise the need to work with you the wave and tidal sector, to set out the way in which we can make the mainstream deployment of wave and tidal technologies a reality in the coming decade.
Lord Hunt is launching the Marine Action Plan process tomorrow when he Chairs the Marine Action Plan Steering Group meeting. The aim of the Steering Group meeting is for the sector and the Government to agree the “Vision” and the Action Plan’s terms of reference.
We hope that those not attending the Steering Group Meeting will also contribute towards the Action Plan. We are setting up sub groups to tackle each of the identified themes in the Terms of Reference:
- Financing the sector,
- planning and consent,
- grid and infrastructure,
- business/commercial structure, and
- technical development.
These sub groups will seek contributions from a wider range of experts.
The Marine Action Plan will set out the key steps which need to be taken by both Government and Industry to make the mass deployment of marine energy technologies a reality. It will look at the barriers which exist to deployment of marine energy and what needs to be done to overcome these – including what levels of support are necessary for the sector, including the issue of ROCs.
Strategic Environmental Assessment
Later on you will be discussing the impacts of marine renewable technologies on the marine environment and the cost of environmental monitoring. Relevant to that is the need for a Strategic Environmental Assessment in English and Welsh waters.
The screening study for Marine Energy Devices in English and Welsh Waters is still ongoing. And I urge anyone who has yet to contribute to do so as soon as possible, as this screening study is your chance to inform the decisions we have to make before we can proceed to a full Strategic Environmental Assessment for Marine Energy Devices in English and Welsh Waters.
The Screening Study will report back in mid November and we will announce the outcome of the study and what our next step will be then.
Severn Tidal Project
The work on the Marine Action Plan will of course need to consider what we are learning from the Severn Tidal Power Feasibility Study – including the Strategic Environmental Assessment. Harnessing the power of the Severn Estuary, with its phenomenal 14 metre tidal range able to provide some 5% of UK electricity from a renewable, indigenous resource is a hugely important option to consider. The largest option in the short list could save 7 MegaTonnes of carbon dioxide a year and have an operational life of well over a century.
But of course, before we take a decision on whether we want to support a Severn tidal power scheme – after a second public consultation probably in 2010 – we must understand all the pros and cons. We must understand the, potentially considerable, effects on the Estuary’s unique and internationally important environment; the possible impacts on flooding; the impacts on people and the economies of the South West and Wales; and how a scheme could be financed and owned. Only when we have this information will we decide whether we want to support a scheme – and this decision will be a question of which, of all our alternative low carbon options on offer is the best, fairest and most sustainable way to meet our climate change goals.
