The work described in this report was prepared by AEA Technology Future Energy Solutions under contract as part of the United Kingdom Department of Trade and Industry’s New and Renewable Energy Programme. The views and judgements expressed in this report are those of the contractor and do not necessarily reflect those of the DTI.
There are two forms of ocean energy considered in this study:
Tidal streams are mainly caused by the movements of oceans and are driven by the interaction of the gravitational fields of the earth, sun and moon. The potential resource for tidal stream is estimated as 5 TW.
Wave power is derived from winds blowing across large expanses of sea. These winds generate sea waves that contain significant quantities of energy. The total world wave energy resource is estimated to be 1-10 TW.
This report details the status of three generic tidal stream concepts and four prototypes—the Marine Current Turbines rotor, the ENERMAR design, the Engineering Business Stingray concept and the Edinburgh University rotor. Even in such a conceptually straightforward resource as marine currents, there is considerable variety of device concept......
