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The Tide Is High - UK Wave Power
More wrong footing going on in the UK? I can still remember when Professor Salter's "ducks" were the new great thing and the UK was on the cutting edge of wave power. Sounds like they got did in by the govmint not unlike the wind industry in the United States. Shades of Dick Cheney's private energy powwow with the energy powers that be. That and cheap North Sea oil. Both the UK and USA are now paying bigtime for conservative government policies (from both of the main parties).
Wave Power All At Sea Until Tide Turns - Times (UK) - 17 Aug 08
"Some say Britain is making the same mistakes as in the early years of wind power. 'We don’t have a wind industry because in the early days of wind turbine development it wasn’t taken seriously by government,' says Fraenkel. We did not invest in the technology, allowing Danish and German firms to develop it. Now they are making money across the globe.
Tide and wave power will need government help to become commercially viable. Otherwise they too could be developed abroad, and we will miss the chance of a lucrative industry offering highly skilled engineering and manufacturing jobs.
A man particularly aware of Britain’s neglect of renewables is Professor Stephen Salter, generally regarded as the pioneer of wave power. He invented a device in the 1970s called Salter’s Edinburgh Duck, which could extract 90% of energy from waves. But the UK government withdrew funding from wave power in 1982, many believe because of the influence of the nuclear industry.
"Britain boasts almost half of Europe’s tidal stream sites — where the underwater currents can be used to drive turbines — and 47% of Europe’s wave resource."
"'The government put into research and development for nuclear something like half a billion a year, for about 17 years,' he [John Griffiths] says. 'If they had put 10% of that [into wave and tidal power] every year since 1999, the marine power situation would look different.'"
Wave Power All At Sea Until Tide Turns - Times (UK) - 17 Aug 08
"Some say Britain is making the same mistakes as in the early years of wind power. 'We don’t have a wind industry because in the early days of wind turbine development it wasn’t taken seriously by government,' says Fraenkel. We did not invest in the technology, allowing Danish and German firms to develop it. Now they are making money across the globe.
Tide and wave power will need government help to become commercially viable. Otherwise they too could be developed abroad, and we will miss the chance of a lucrative industry offering highly skilled engineering and manufacturing jobs.
A man particularly aware of Britain’s neglect of renewables is Professor Stephen Salter, generally regarded as the pioneer of wave power. He invented a device in the 1970s called Salter’s Edinburgh Duck, which could extract 90% of energy from waves. But the UK government withdrew funding from wave power in 1982, many believe because of the influence of the nuclear industry.
"Britain boasts almost half of Europe’s tidal stream sites — where the underwater currents can be used to drive turbines — and 47% of Europe’s wave resource."
"'The government put into research and development for nuclear something like half a billion a year, for about 17 years,' he [John Griffiths] says. 'If they had put 10% of that [into wave and tidal power] every year since 1999, the marine power situation would look different.'"