Wave and tidal power

Surf on rocky shoreline
Wave and tidal power can make a valuable contribution to carbon-free energy production

The seas around the UK offer an abundant and inexhaustible source of energy in the form of electricity generation from wave and tidal power.

The RSPB considers that these forms of generation can make a valuable contribution in the UK’s move towards the carbon-free energy we need if we are to combat climate change.

We have long been concerned that the Government’s mechanism for supporting renewable energy generation - the Renewables Obligation - only encourages the cheapest technologies, mainly onshore wind generation. It is clearly desirable to deliver renewable electricity at as low a cost as possible. However, the government’s approach has meant that potentially useful technologies, such as wave and tidal, will never be developed to the stage where they are economic.

With time, we should expect the costs of wave and tidal power to come down

We have long proposed that the government should ring-fence a small part of the Renewables Obligation (so-called technology banding) to encourage a wider range of renewables than at present. The Scottish Executive is now doing this for wave and tidal power, and the UK government is moving in this direction

With time, we should expect the costs of wave and tidal power to come down; it is true that they are expensive compared to ‘conventional’ generation.

Threats to wildlife

As with most forms of energy generation, certain wave and tidal energy projects have the potential to pose a threat to wildlife if they are designed and sited in the wrong way. The RSPB seeks to minimise such threats, and is viewing assessments of pilot projects with great interest.

Tidal stream generators, for example, appear to be fairly benign as they are almost entirely submerged and their rotors turn very slowly and so are unlikely to harm marine wildife. Large tidal barrages, on the other hand, are likely to significantly disrupt esturine habitats for birds.

Our tidal and wave energy policy can be summarised as follows:

Every development should be subject to an appropriate evaluation of its environmental impacts;
The current absence of designated sites in the marine environment means that environmental impact assessment is especially important;
Strategic Environmental Assessment is a useful tool that can help ensure that decisions about the location of developments are made with a fuller understanding of their potential environmental impacts.

Last modified: 09 August 2006