Wave and tidal power companies have been flummoxed by the challenges of building on the ocean.
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An American tidal power company has announced plans to establish a base in Scotland.
The prospects for his energy storage idea with tidal power are perhaps even better.
While the report paints a positive future for tidal power, a critical element is money.
Rolls Royce and Kawasaki Heavy Industries are among the giants now exploring the development of tidal power.
The Highlands and Islands has been seen as a prime location for wind, wave and tidal power projects.
The report said the UK government had failed to invest in clean coal technology and tidal power projects.
But Rolls-Royce is withdrawing from tidal power generation, following the sale of its business to Alstom in January 2013.
Under the new plan, developing more expensive technologies (such as offshore wind or tidal power) will attract more money.
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While tidal power got to the grid first, offshore wind has the potential to create a great deal more electricity.
That would force power companies to take more of their supply from green energy sources, like wave and tidal power.
Other countries with strong tidal resources and potential sites for tidal power farms include Argentina, Chile, the U.S. and Canada.
Environment groups who have long bemoaned the slow pace of development on wave and tidal power endorsed the committee's recommendations.
In 1966, French President Charles De Gaulle opened the world's first tidal power station at the Rance estuary in Brittany.
The invisibility of tidal power may have helped it beat offshore wind in the race to deliver juice to the grid.
Supporters of the barrage say the privately-financed project could generate up to 5% of Britain's energy needs by using more than 1, 000 turbines and tidal power.
Plans for tidal power in Swansea Bay were first mooted in 2003 when a charity wanted to harness the tides to provide electricity for up to 10, 000 homes.
Only wave and tidal power providers have experienced more trouble.
The proposals form part of Peel Energy's vision to develop the mouth of the River Mersey into a "renewables hub" and sits alongside plans to harness tidal power from the river.
However it praised assembly ministers for supporting tidal power.
FoE Scotland chief executive Duncan McLaren said wave and tidal power could supply a fifth of UK energy needs and that Scotland was ideally placed to generate a significant amount of that energy.
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The Isle of Wight, off the south coast in the Solent, aspires to become self-sufficient in energy over the next few decades through a combination of tidal power, a waste-to-electricity plant and efficiency savings.
Maf Smith, chief executive of green energy trade body Scottish Renewables welcomed the move and said that with the right support wave and tidal power could meet 10% of Scotland's electricity needs by 2020.
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Tidal turbines can be installed closer to shore than wave energy equipment, and thanks to the regularity of the tides, tidal power offers a more stable renewable energy source than, say, intermittent wind or solar.
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But according to the authors of the latest research, 2013 could see a big breakthrough in tidal stream power.
Ambitious plans for offshore renewable energy projects are crowding the waters--floating wind farms, tidal-power turbines and wave-energy barges--all expected in the next decade.
David Pugh, the leader of the Isle of Wight council, is hoping to interest Southampton University, which has a big marine-research division, in his tidal-power plans.
The Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult centre will focus on offshore wind, tidal and wave power.
The Renewable Energy Commission has also been looking at the potential for offshore tidal and wind power, which Deputy Duhamel said could play a significant role in improving the island's energy security in the future.
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