The Tidal Stream Technology Roadmap report, published by the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, demonstrates how costs can be reduced through 10 technology innovations, and lead to significant growth in the UK tidal industry.

The Marine Energy Council (MEC), the representative body for the UK’s tidal stream and wave energy industries, has set a target for UK wave and tidal stream energy capacity to reach 1GW by 2035. To reach this ambitious target, tidal technology innovations need to become a commercial reality.

The 10 innovations include subsea hubs, anchors for floating devices, controllers to optimise lifetime turbine performance, cable monitoring and tidal array optimisation.

The report also demonstrates how cost reduction is crucial in enabling an accelerated growth trajectory for the sector. In an ‘optimistic’ cost reduction scenario, these innovations could support an 80% reduction in tidal stream cost from the current £259/MWh to £50/MWh by 2035.

However, the report also...