Blog: Crown Estate to invest £20m in marine energy
The organisation which controls property rights over most of the seabed around the UK’s coast, has announced this week that it is to invest up to £20 million to help develop marine energy projects in the UK. The Crown Estate are looking to invest in two wave and/or tidal energy demonstration arrays. To be eligible for investment, the projects must already have a Crown Estate agreement for lease, have statutory consents and grid connection agreements, and realistically be expected to reach final decisions for capital investment by March 2014.
This is very positive news which should increase confidence within the industry and encourage further investment. A number of the technologies planned for deployment in the Crown Estate lease areas – particularly in the Pentland Firth and Orkney waters lease areas – are being tested here at EMEC prior to being built out on commercial scale. This level of investment could inspire other developers to come and test here in Orkney, as well as encourage the utility companies and big engineering companies to get involved. With the Crown Estate set to profit when the industry takes off, to see them step up in this way is a great confidence boost for the industry.
