Installing of some 2.6GW of tidal and wave arrays over the next decade off Europe could spearhead development of a 100GW marine renewable energy (MRE) market by 2050, a new report from sector advocacy body Ocean Energy Europe (OEE) has calculated.

OEE’s 2030 Ocean Energy Vision sees EU waters with the potential to account for 92% of a 3GW worldwide deployment by 2030 at costs as low as €90/MWh ($106/MWh) for tidal stream and €110/MWh for wave energy, which would add up to €5.8bn in “gross value” to underused supply chains in the most industrially developed nations as well as to coastal regions with expertise in maritime operations and shipbuilding.

“The 2030 Ocean Energy Vision is a clear signal of the industry’s confidence in the future,” said OEE CEO Rémi Gruet. “We know what Europe will need in 2030 and beyond, and we know that ocean energy delivers on those needs.

“The sector has already taken huge strides forward in technological development and cost reduction. Now we just need the right framework to roll out large-scale wave and tidal energy across Europe’s seas and oceans.”

“Whether it’s cutting steel, designing gearboxes or installing machines in the open sea, wave and tidal farms will harness Europeans’ existing skills and help drive the economic recovery [post-Covid-19].”

European Commission (EC) director-general for maritime affairs and fisheries Charlina Vitcheva said: “Ocean energy can be a real ‘jewel in the crown’ of the blue economy. The economic and environmental opportunities it offers EU coastal citizens are exactly what the European Green Deal is all about.

“The EC is busy preparing a new strategy on offshore renewables as we speak, and I warmly welcome the ocean energy sector’s contribution to this work. This strategy should be an important catalyst for the development of all offshore renewable energy, and for building a Europe powered by blue energy.”

OEE said the EC strategy on offshore renewables would be “critical” to MRE growing in to playing a key role in both the regional and global blue economy, underlining that targets for deployment “must be complemented by deeper cooperation between the EU and national governments, particularly on revenue support and permitting”.

“Taken together, these policy actions will stimulate investment, get large-scale projects in the water and drive costs down further.”

MRE is seen as having the potential to be central to balancing Europe’s electricity grid as the energy transition progresses, with moon-regulated tidal stream as a “100% predictable” energy source and wave “working particularly well” with the variability of wind power production.

“Combined wind and wave together produce an overall power output that is smoother, and more reliable,” said Gruet.

A state-of-the-industry report from OEE in 2016 estimated enought MRE capacity could be deployed in Europe by 2050 to meet one-tenth of the EU’s power needs, as well as creating some 400,000 jobs.

The international MRE sector has suffered choppy water for most of the past decade, with tidal stream power ploughing ahead with plans to build a market-changing “multi-hundred-MW” tidal power plant off the west coast of France announced in 2018 by developer Simec Atlantis Energy, and, most recently, new funding for arrays off the east coat of Canada.

Transition

Next decade could spearhead '100GW ocean energy market by 2050' off Europe: report