2024 UK Ocean Energy Review: A Year of Marked Progress

The Policy and Innovation Group at the University of Edinburgh, in collaboration with the Supergen ORE Hub, Wave Energy Scotland, and the Marine Energy Council, has released the 2024 UK Ocean Energy Review.

The annual report outlines the UK’s key policies supporting the ocean energy sector, including national and devolved strategies, available market incentives, and updates on public funding programmes. It highlights major funding decisions in 2024, including the allocation of 28MW in Contracts for Difference (CfDs) to four tidal stream developers.

Providing an update on research and development support from key institutions, the report emphasises ongoing work, including research into improving lease agreements and identifying alternative off-takers for tidal energy. In terms of R&D projects, in addition to continued device development, significant progress has been made on projects developing a modular wave PTO and investigating the lifecycle of tidal turbine blades.

Key test centres have also seen notable developments, with EMEC expanding both its wave and tidal testing facilities and the Morlais project completing its first phase in 2024. While no new capacity was added by UK developers in 2024, the current operations at the main tidal and wave projects are presented, and the future developments unlocked by CfDs are outlined.

Click here to read the full report.