Mr. Brendan Barry:

There is going to be no single solution, no silver bullet. The EU policy target of 2050 for decarbonisation will probably require a mix of onshore wind, offshore wind, some solar PV and some ocean, that is, wave and tidal. It is a mix of all of those. The challenges with some of those technologies is that they are intermittent and weather dependent. There are benefits in having a mix of those in a portfolio of renewables. When one is strong, for example, the sun, others might not be, but on balance they can complement one another. We would expect to see a mix in the portfolio. As soon as ocean energy is competitive with those other renewable technologies, it will take its share of that, although what that share is depends on how economic it is.

The point about constraints is important in that some of the other technologies are constrained. For example, there is only so much onshore wind one can have, there are only so many suitable locations where the water is shallow enough for offshore wind and solar PV would be constrained by the number of land options, whereas ocean energy gives a much less constrained potential option in the mix. It has very good prospects. Getting the signals right through the Bill, getting the demonstration projects up and running, and proving the costs and then getting them down will be key.