Wave and tidal energy could contribute significantly to New Zealand’s future energy supply and support its requirement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and meet its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol, AWATEA executive officer Dr John Huckerby said.

“We are pleased to see the announcement of a marine energy deployment fund,” he said.

“Marine energy technologies are not yet commercially competitive with existing technologies but the pace of development is fast. The first commercial wave farm will be operational in Portugal within the next year.”

While overseas technology developments are more advanced than marine energy technologies being developed in New Zealand, about half of the current domestic projects were developing new technologies, according to Huckerby.

“We would like to see these technologies get the same chance, as those projects seeking to import overseas technologies,” he said.

“We cannot afford to wait for overseas technologies to mature. Hopefully, the contestable fund will seek to balance support for domestic and overseas technologies. In any event we anticipate that marine energy projects will be commercially viable in much less than the 10-20 years forecast in the draft strategy”.

The draft strategy indicates that R & D investment in marine energy resource assessments is a high priority.

AWATEA said it planned to work closely with Government to get the right incentives and policy package to secure the uptake of marine energy – from R&D to commercial operation.

“AWATEA has already proposed a more detailed marine energy strategy to Government, which will support the implementation of the high-level objectives of the draft strategy,” Huckerby said.

“The draft strategy is a welcome and positive first step – much work remains to be done to secure marine energy its place in a diversified, carbon neutral energy supply portfolio.”