Industry leaders gather in Cardiff for tidal and wave workshop

Tidal and wave energy sector players are gathering today, July 15, in Cardiff to attend the workshop on wave and tidal demonstration zones and test test sites across the UK.

Welsh Government is hosting the event in Cardiff, and the Crown Estate, along with Natural England, Natural Resources Wales, Scottish Natural Heritage, and Welsh Government, are funding the event, the Crown Estate’s press release reads.

The aim of the workshop is to facilitate better collaboration across the sectors and help the development of demonstration zones and test sites across the UK.

The workshop will be held over two days to share knowledge from across a number of different test sites, develop joint learning around both the environmental and technical engineering aspects of device testing, and look at the approach to consenting demonstration zones, according to the Crown Estate.

This might include designing robust research programmes to learn about interactions between marine energy devices and the environment, or testing new methods for survey and monitoring in these challenging environments to reduce the burden on individual developers.

Carl Sargeant, Minister for Natural Resources in Wales said: “If harnessed sustainably, our wind, wave and tidal resource can play a major role in our energy security and our ambitions of achieving a low carbon future for Wales.”

The workshop is said to bring together regulators, advisors and managers of demonstration zones and test sites and is being facilitated by Natural Capital Ltd.

George Lees, Policy and Advice Manager for Marine Renewables in Scottish Natural Heritage, said: “Demonstration zones for wave and tidal power development have a vital role to play in the scaling up of existing test deployments, such as those at EMEC in Orkney, enabling us to learn not just about technical performance but also about environmental interactions.”

According to the Crown estate, it will support the work of the Offshore Renewables Joint Industry Programme (ORJIP) for Ocean Energy, which is seeking to ensure a more co-ordinated approach to research and development.

Image: twitter/Carl Sargeant