Marine

The UK has a large marine energy resource, incorporating two key types of marine technology, wave and tidal power.  SSE aims to have several hundred megawatts of marine capacity operating or with consent by 2020 and is developing a number of options around the UK.

The UK has significant wave energy potential, due to the direction of the prevailing winds and the size of fetch over the Atlantic Ocean.  Tidal energy can be harnessed by either tidal range technologies, which exploit the size of tides or by tidal stream technologies, which use the speed of currents. Tidal energy has the benefit over other renewable technologies as it is predictably intermittent.
 
Wave power currently receives financial support of 5 Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) per MWh produced under the Renewables Obligation (RO) and tidal energy receives 3 ROCs per MWh produced, due to the early stage of development of both technologies   The Government's proposed Electricity Market Reform is due to replace the support mechanism under the RO with a new low carbon generation support mechanism, but support mechanisms for previous investments will be grandfathered to ensure investor confidence