U.K. Launches First Marine Energy Park

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) -- Plans by the U.K. to harness the power of the sea advanced significantly this week when the government named the South West region as the country's first marine energy park.

The massive area known as the South West Marine Energy Park will stretch from Bristol through to Cornwall and as far as the Isles of Scilly. It will serve as the country's leading region -- excluding Scotland -- for the development of wave and tidal energy projects. Cornwall is already home to the Wave Hub, widely regarded as the world's leading wave energy testing facility. Wave Hub is a giant, grid-connected socket that lies on the seabed 16 kilometers off the Cornwall coast and is designed to connect cutting-edge wave energy devices for commercial testing. For additional information, see November 12, 2010, article - U.K.'s Wave Hub Open for Business.

The government maintains that energy from the waves or tides has the potential to generate up to 27,000 megawatts (MW) of power in the U.K. alone by 2050 -- the equivalent to the power generated from eight coal-fired power stations.

The South West Marine Energy Park is designed to speed up the rollout of marine energy projects, most of which are still in the testing and pilot stages. It will foster partnerships between local and central government as well as offer grants and support for research, early testing and commercial scaling of projects.

"The U.K. is already a world leader in wave and tidal power, so we should capitalise on this leadership to make marine power a real contender in the future energy market," commented Climate Change Minister, Greg Barker. "This is a real milestone for the marine industry and for the South West region in securing its place in renewables history as the first official marine energy park."

He added: "The South West can build on its existing unique mix of renewable energy resource and home-grown academic, technical and industrial expertise. Marine power has huge potential in the UK not just in contributing to a greener electricity supply and cutting emissions, but in supporting thousands of jobs in a sector worth a possible £15 billion ($23 billion) to the economy to 2050".

The south west marine sector has already benefitted from a combined investment of more than €119 million ($155 million).in recent years. Another €24 million ($31 million) is being made available to develop marine energy projects from the low carbon technologies fund created by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).

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