2. Marine Energy in the UK.

2.1 Positives
2.1.1 One of the most important features of the ocean as a source of energy is the fact that water is 785 times denser than air. If we take a look at formula 1 we will see that this makes a 4.5m/s stream of water 785 times more energy rich. This density of energy is very attractive from engineering point of view and supports the interest in marine energy (Boles & Cengel, 2007). 2.1.2 Another good point when considering wave and tidal energy is the fact that the UK has a great number of energy rich sites for harvesting. As we can see in figure 3, the west coast of the British Isles has a number of sites with the top 2 markings of 5060 and above 60 kW/m of shoreline energy content. Evidently, this is one of the 3 best shores worldwide to produce wave energy. Furthermore, the tidal currents around the UK and the series of islands and narrows create an astonishing opportunity for tidal stream and tidal barrage energy. In figure 4, provided by the Sustainable Development Commission in their UK tidal resource assessment report, we can observe for instance the strong currents in the Pentland Firth. Another obvious location is the Bristol, which appears to offer significant areas where mean annual density exceeds 10kW/m2 (McCall et al, 2007). 2.1.3 A major point to be considered when looking into the credibility of marine energy is the investment that needs to be made compared to the output it will yield. This cost-benefit analysis is a key issue for all the business plans and governmental reports that concern the renewable energy market. A site or type of source is only considered for development if the return on investment is better than the established coal, gas and oil. There are some things to consider before coming to a conclusion about the economics of marine energy. First of all, lets to take into account the total potential for the 3 main types of energy solar, Figure 4: Tidal flow distribution around the territory of the UK Figure 3: Wave energy distribution around the world

wind and marine. We do not want to spend billions of pounds developing the perfect machine to extract energy from the sea if there are only 2 sites where it can be used. In Dr. Tom Bruces presentation Energy resources as a part of the Sustainable Energy: Principles and Processes course, we saw a table of the theoretical amounts of energy available in the world. The Sun, of course, is a major factor giving a theoretical 3,900,000 EJ/year, while wind and marine are much closer at 6000 EJ/year and 7400 EJ/year respectively. Having in mind that the world energy consumption at the moment is 420 EJ/year, according to the same presentation, we can see that energy is highly abundant and the oceans had even more to give than wind, which has been the king of clean energy in the public mind for years. In the UK there have been a number of studies of the potential of the sea. In one of them by the Sustainable Development Commission - UK tidal resource assessment, the authors quote a number of 110TWh/year. With the UK energy consumption currently at 377,285 TWh/year this would account for 29.2% of the total needed. However, there are a number of factors limiting the amount of that energy engineers can use. Thus, according to the same report by McCall et al, the technically extractable energy from marine energy in the UK drops to 22TWh/year, which is 6% of the UK consumption. To put this into perspective we can take into consideration a study by the same organization on the wind energy capacity in the UK Wind Energy in the UK of November 2005. The report does not give a definitive figure about the total potential but we can use the fact that with the quoted expected capacity of 9.5GW of energy by the end of 2010, wind can generate 25TWh/year or just about 7% of the total demand. Thus, we can see that marine energy is a viable source of energy, even though, its maximum capacity is not as great as wind and solar. 2.1.4 After the initials sites have been evaluated and approved we can now consider the investment required. Table 1 gives figures for the investment per kW our output expected. Since marine energy is still in a development stage, we have considered one of the few working projects the Agucadoura Wave Park of the coast of Portugal for the comparison*. Table 1: Investment vs. Output of common renewable sources. Source of Energy Investment () Solar 5000 8000 Wind 3000 Marine* 3500

Output (KW) 1 kW 1 kW 1 kW

One of the main reasons for the poor performance of solar power is the poor efficiency of photovoltaic cell of about 15%. Future developments should increase productivity and drop the price considerably. 2.1.5 Another positive of marine energy in the UK is the fact that most of the research worldwide is conducted there. This increases public expectations and fortifies the fields profile. The research and development of the Universities and academics mentioned in the Introduction is now being put to practice by a number of companies and they are getting a lot of attention. Furthermore, marine energy has an advantage over wind generators in the mind of the public since it does not disturb the peace and quiet of local communities. One of the biggest problems when a wind farm project is being planned, ratified and commissioned is how it is going to affect the people around. It is understandable for those people to act against wind generators as they are creating some noise, even though it is very limited. Marine energy on the other hand is enjoying the publics favors, since it never creates disturbance for the communities in general. Since one of the few contacts people have with renewable energy is exactly that disturbance it is fair for wave and tidal energies to have a good profile and name in the eyes of the public.

2.2 Negatives.
Before giving marine energy full credit for the publics interest, there are several issues that need to taken into account. Everything discussed so far has outlined the reason for people to see the future of energy in the ocean. There are, however, a number of reasons why marine energy is not as clean and easy as we have come to believe. 2.2.1 One of the downsides we already mentioned. The total potential for ocean energy in the UK might be one of the best in the work, but 6% of national consumption is not greatly significant. Furthermore, the population and energy consumption is constantly increasing, thus the percent of marine energy in the total consumption is going to decrease and there are few ways to expand. 2.2.2 Another problem with the research and installation of the sites and machinery is the actual environment they need to exist in. The seas, around the top of Scotland particularly, are very rough. Unfortunately, this peculiar predicament is embedded in the nature of marine energy. If there is any energy in the water it is going to in the form of either waves or currents. Thus, the attractive sites are going to be difficult to access and service. The strong currents in the Pentland Firth for instance will allow for just several hours a day of working conditions and the installation of the capacities can take more time than expected (On Stream, 2008). There is an interesting topic associated with the environment of energy production the oceans and seas. There is a widespread belief and a sizeable amount of evidence to support the increase in world temperature and the consequences this can have. Melanie Jarman is an author who has written a book called Climate Change as part of her series Small Guides to Big Issues. In this book she has gathered and conveniently presented a summary of what is the effect of the increase of the world temperature of 1C to 5C. One of the topics discussed is the detrimental effect of the warm up to for the world oceans. For the increase of 1C the author says that the Atlantic thermohaline circulation starts to weaken and in the case of 3C there is a rising risk of collapse of the fore mentioned water circulation. In terms of wave and tidal current energy this means that the all the research and site development done in the past decades is going to be useless, since the pattern of behavior of the power source, the water, is going to be altered. Since the public is viewing marine energy as the source of the future, these are issues worth investigating and undermine the credibility of field. 2.2.3 However, all these problems being more theoretical or purely practical are overshadowed by the main one lack of power line and connection to the main grid of the sites of interest. This point can be perfectly illustrated by figure 5. This map shows the primary tidal current and tidal range sites of interest in the UK and the level of grid connectivity available. The colors ranging from green, through amber, purple and red in that ascending order of inaccessibility. In this figure green represents areas that can be connected to the power grid close to the shore without significant investments and reinforcement and red, on the other extreme, represents the sites where the connection is currently impossible and would require long-term investment and development of the transmission network. Unfortunately, the most attractive opportunities being the Pentland Firth and the Severn Barrage are in the inaccessible areas. This creates a problem for the economics of marine energy, since technically power lines can be constructed this is going to push the price of the energy up and discourage investment and thus public interest. This would cost the development company and ultimately the clients an estimated 3/kW of capacity even before construction has begun and 120/kW in the aftermath of the project development (McCall et al, 2007). Therefore, an installed capacity of 2GW at the Pentland Firth would cost 240 million pounds to construct (McCall et al, 2007).

Figure 5: Availability of grid connection to tidal sites.

2.2.4 There is a topic that no engineering project can afford to overlook nowadays and that is the environmental impact. The fact that marine energy extraction involves the placement of heavy machinery in the water makes the analysis a must. First point to be considered is the navigational risk for ships and boats. The tidal current sites are usually in narrows and therefore convenient shipping routes and the dept and position has to be noted. Another issue is the disturbance of tidal current and the effect on the downstream habitats. Furthermore, the machines are going to require maintenance and the use of anti-fouling paints. Another probable issue is the acoustic emission in the water and their effect on the marine mammals and habitat. The Scottish Natural Heritage claimed that if sites are properly selected, off shore wave and tidal stream appear, provisionally, appear to be the technologies offering the most abundant generation capacity in return for the least natural heritage impact (On Stream, 2008).

3. Worldwide Consideration
There are good reasons to believe that interest in marine energy in the UK is justified, however, the same cannot be said about the worldwide application. There are a wide variety of sources in different parts of the world. Thus, each country should try and take advantage of what is at hand. The global energy sector cannot rely on the mass production of marine energy and its further distribution. Localized production would save a great deal in distribution and construction costs. Brazil is a good example, with the massive hydro and sugarcane industries. During the 1970s oil crisis the government invested heavily in the construction of dams and turbines instead of importing expensive oil. Combined with the natural abundance of sugarcane Brazil is now almost completely energy independent, with 83% coming from hydro-generation and 16% from sugarcane, planted on just 1% of the arable land (Pagnamenta, 2009). This is how individual countries take advantage of their natural resources. The UK has good marine energy potential, but in global scale there are better solutions.