Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the amount of tidal energy recoverable from UK and British Crown Dependency territorial waters.

The Crown Estate UK Wave and Tidal Key Resource Areas study (2012)^[1] assessed the UK’s theoretical maximum resource for tidal stream, barrage and lagoon resource at 95 TWh/year (32 GW), 96 TWh/year (45 GW) and 25 TWh/year (14 GW) respectively. The Department’s Technology Innovation Needs Assessment ^[2] (TINA) published in 2012 estimated that tidal stream energy could practically deliver up to 20-30 TWh/year around 2050.

[1] http://www.thecrownestate.co.uk/media/5476/uk-wave-and-tidal-key-resource-areas-project.pdf

[2] http://www.lowcarboninnovation.co.uk/working_together/technology_focus_areas/marine/