The diversity of our expertise, experience and test facilities enables us to support the marine energy sector through research, engineering, testing and programme management.
ORE Catapult supports the UK’s marine energy sector through collaborative innovation projects with SMEs, research and analysis, provision of engineering expertise, testing and programme management.
Four key sites are driving this journey:
Our analysts published the sector’s definitive report in 2018 that predicted that the global marine energy industry will be worth £76bn by 2050 and could already deliver a net cumulative benefit to the UK of £1.4bn by 2030. Up to 60% of this value would be retained in coastal communities, alongside the creation of thousands of local jobs. The report concluded that by providing new renewable energy sources that complement wind, our pioneering SMEs offer significant economic opportunity.
In October 2022, we published the ‘Cost Reduction Pathway of Tidal Stream Energy in the UK and France’ report, as part of the Interreg FCE funded TIGER project. The report gave an updated view of the global state of the tidal market and presented a cost reduction trajectory taking TSE from its current price of £260/MWh down to £78/MWh by 2035 – if current opportunity is realised.
Economic benefits, in recent studies from the University of Edinburgh and University of Manchester, were also highlighted.
TSE projects:
The report suggested that 877MW of TSE could be deployed in the UK by 2035, in agreement with the Marine Energy Council’s ask for the UK Government to commit to 1GW of marine energy deployment by 2035.
At ORE Catapult, our industrial and research advisory groups, and our industry-led Board of Directors, collaborate with industry, and work with government and key industry stakeholders to support the growth of offshore renewable energy in the UK.
TIDAL NEWS: New intelligent turbine project demonstrates the cost of tidal energy could be reduced by 17%.
The innovative ELEMENT (Effective Lifetime Extension in the Marine Environment for Tidal Energy) project, which completed this summer, has created an intelligent control system within a tidal energy turbine that could potentially slash costs by over 17.7 per cent. The four-year, €5 million Horizon 2020 project, brought together the expertise of 11 partners, including ourselves and tidal energy developers Nova Innovation. It focussed on innovating the control system in a tidal turbine to improve performance and longevity – creating more efficient energy production.
Read more here: New intelligent turbine project demonstrates the cost of tidal energy could be reduced by 17 per cent
REENERGISE PODCAST: In Partnership with… Nova Innovation
Tune in to this podcast episode as our Sector Lead of Wave & Tidal, Simon Cheeseman, sits down with Nova Innovation’s Chief Operating Officer, Seumas MacKenzie. Listen to the full podcast here:
Take a look at how we test and validate tidal technologies at our National Renewable Energy Centre in Blyth in the video below.
We offer a range of services across our UK facilities:
Our engineering experts can provide clients with concept evaluation and technical expertise, determining the best route to deployment though a combination of market intelligence, engineering design and technical assessment.
Our capabilities and project services include:
We have a proven track record of managing high value projects and offer a project management service to deliver and support research and technology innovation projects. We operate rigorous project management and governance procedures based on best practice drawn from across the professional project management industry, including Association for Project Management and PRINCE2 methodologies. Our procedures are regularly reviewed and updated to adapt to innovations in this sector. We strive for excellence across all areas and operate with an Integrated Management System. The organisation is certified to ISO 9001, 14001 and OHSAS 18001, under the scope of research, development, engineering, commercial testing, knowledge management.
Our specialist skills, project experience and field services equipment for conducting resource measurements, investigations and electrical testing provides project developers and equipment manufacturers with development and operational support. We deliver bespoke test routines, carry out performance assessments and conduct data collection and analysis. We can also perform inspections, maintenance and failure investigations and carry out electrical testing of components or whole systems onshore and offshore.
Our field services, laboratory testing and specialist expertise includes:
We offer clients a technology assessment service. TAP provides a standardised framework for the assessment of wave and tidal energy systems, allowing technology to be benchmarked in a number of key areas. We have developed this from our own internal technology assessment process, recognising the urgent need for the marine energy sector to adopt a more robust development methodology to provide investors with a means to compare technology. We characterise a technology against four stages of design maturity, providing the client with an independent, evidence-based report on the technology with recommendations to de-risk multi device integration and advise on the technology development route through to commercialisation.
The development of offshore renewable energy presents significant economic opportunities for local and regional economies. Our Marine Energy Supply Chain Gateway (MESCG) supports the UK marine energy sector by providing useful information about supply chain participants and activities. Our relationships with industry players and with a number of central and local government and regional development agencies enable us to offer the client a signposting service to help develop supply chain relationships.
We have developed benchmark models for device families. Our energy modelling team can provide LCoE model review, or design, assumptions review and forecast verification, carry out sensitivity analysis on Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) data to determine variations in project OPEX.
We disseminate outputs through a robust internal knowledge management system, delivering public presentations, organising technical workshops, posting knowledge documents on our website and posting data on our Wave & Tidal Knowledge Network. Where a client has a dissemination obligation, we can manage or support that activity on their behalf.
Our bid writing team has established an impressive track record in bids for Local Growth Fund, ERDF, FP7, H2020, Interreg and Innovate UK calls. We are experienced in both leading bids and acting as a research partner or SME partner and can offer a bid support service, either advising on content, structure and layout, or drafting a bid on their behalf.
Simon Cheeseman
Sector Lead, Wave & Tidal Energy
07834 737250
Simon Cheeseman is the ORE Catapult’s Wave & Tidal Energy Sector Specialist.
He runs the Catapult’s offices in Cornwall and a hot desk facility with University of Plymouth, as part of the Catapult and Universities Collaborative Offshore Subsea Systems (COSS) technology accelerator.
Simon has been involved in marine renewable energy since 2012 when he worked for the Energy Technologies Institute before joining ORE Catapult in Feb 2014. He’s responsible for helping set the ORE Catapult’s marine energy strategy, he leads the €48million Tidal Industry Energiser project (TIGER), and is focused on accelerating floating wind deployment in the Celtic Sea as well as growing the South West and Wales supply chain capability and capacity.
Simon is strategy lead for the Catapult’s Marine Energy Strategic Growth area and the Business Development lead for the Project Pipeline Strategic Growth Area. Simon represents the Catapult on the Board of the Celtic Sea Cluster, the Board of Maritime UK South West and is one of the Catapult’s representatives on the Marine Energy Council.
Simon’s focus is developing collaborative projects for ORE Catapult in wave, tidal and floating wind energy as well as supporting floating wind project developers and supply chain development for floating wind in the South West and Wales.