§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what assessment he has made of the advantages of subsidising(a) research into and (b) trials of tidal and wave generation of electricity; and if he will make a statement. [3191]
§ Mr. PageA review of wave energy was published by the DTI in December 1992. The review found that wave energy had limited potential to contribute commercially to energy supplies in the next few decades.
Tidal energy, using both conventional barrages and free standing tidal stream devices, has also been the subject of a DTI programme. The main conclusion of the programme was that tidal energy had poor prospects for commercial deployment in the future, especially as the technology associated with tidal barrages was well developed and the Government believed that there was little potential for significantly reducing costs.
In consequence, the Minister for Energy has previously announced the completion of both the wave and tidal programmes.