Further written evidence reported to the House
Energy Bill
10:40 am
Andrew Lee: Can I comment perhaps on the issue of tidal energy, which we have obviously featured heavily in the Sustainable Development Commission’s work recently? I think that our assessment of the potential for tidal stream technology—marine-current turbines and so on—is that although a banded RO is to be welcomed, it is not the measure that will be the key issue in the short term because those technologies are still at a very early stage. One of the technologies, a single turbine, is being tested in Strangford lough right now and the issue is about maintaining the level of investment and innovation funding and things such as the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney, where you can actually plug in these technologies and test them. It is about that sort of commitment to innovation in technology because we have not yet got to the stage, as we did with wind, where we know which kind of technical solutions will deliver in the long term. The RO is perhaps for those technologies nearer to market. We also need the framework for innovation and investment.
The feedback that we got from the tidal industry players and some of the academics was that actually they were not that dissatisfied with the current regime; it was more about staying the course, and having very clear signals from the UK Government, and particularly the Government in Scotland in this case as well, that tidal technology is going to be an important part of the UK economy and innovation in the future. Therefore there is a lot to play for.