The spatial modelling study focused on three specific territories – Great Britain, Ireland and Portugal – and identified close to 60 GW of ‘practically viable’ wave energy and 10 GW of tidal-stream energy. On a regional basis, the results showed resources of 34.8 GW in Great Britain, 18.8 GW in Ireland and 15.5 GW in Portugal.

The study also indicated that 10 GW of ocean energy installed in Great Britain alone could save £1.46bn/y in power system dispatch costs, with emissions reduced by up to 1.05mn tCO₂, according to the project partners.

They report that the results ‘show a consistent pattern with increases in ocean energy reducing overall system dispatch costs – including the cost of delivered fuel, and other variable operation and maintenance – and annual carbon emissions’. These system benefits are due to the offsetting of ocean energy availability with other renewables such as wind and solar. It was found that ‘a more diverse mix of renewables, including ocean energy, results in a more consistent renewable production profile which is better able to meet hourly electricity demands, key for reaching future international net zero targets’.

The two-year initiative was led by Aquatera, with support from WavEC Offshore Renewables, Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE) and The University of Edinburgh, along with wave and tidal energy developers CorPower Ocean and Orbital Marine Power.

EVOLVE Technical Manager Dr Shona Pennock, who also serves as a Research Associate in Marine Energy within Edinburgh University’s Policy & Innovation Group, says: ‘There has been much commentary in recent years about the potential benefits of adding wave and tidal to the broader energy system, but this has been hampered by limited quantifiable studies. The EVOLVE project aimed to directly address this point, producing tangible results in terms of the costs and carbon savings associated with deploying ocean energy into future low-carbon energy mixes.’

She continues: ‘The key headline from the EVOLVE project is that including a higher proportion of ocean energy within our future electricity system consistently results in higher renewable dispatch, for the same total renewable energy availability, due to the offsetting of wave and tidal with wind and solar generation. The ability to dispatch more renewables also results in lower fossil fuel and peaking plant dispatch, and thus lower total dispatch costs and carbon emissions.’

Noting that the EVOLVE report places ‘further academic weight behind the case for ocean energy, helping inform decision makers across Europe’, Anders Jansson, Head of Business Development at CorPower Ocean, adds: ‘The key challenge in the race to net zero and 24/7 carbon free energy lies in the supply of consistent and stable renewable energy. By modelling future power system scenarios across Europe, the EVOLVE project has been able to clearly demonstrate the role ocean energy can play in the future, ensuring a more cost-effective matching of energy supply and demand.’

Oliver Wragg, Commercial Director at Orbital Marine Power, concludes: ‘The net zero energy system of the future will need multiple forms of renewable energy generation. We know that the tides rise and fall like clockwork and can be predicated hundreds of years into the future. With the results of the EVOLVE project, we now also have clear projections for how the addition of predictable stable power generation from Europe’s fantastic tidal stream resource can help to cost effectively reach our net zero ambitions.’