Abstract
This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of renewable and especially tidal energy through a political, economic, social, technology, legal and environmental (PESTLE) analysis approach and by reviewing the most up to date relevant literature. The study focuses on the United Kingdom given the favourable environmental resources for such technologies; the number of different design concepts that are currently under development as well as the research funding that has been invested over the last few years. Findings of the analysis identify the risks and multiple stakeholders involved at all stages of the tidal energy projects development from the conceptualization of the design, right through to decommissioning. Many of the stakeholders present benefits to the tidal developers through funding, incentives and knowledge sharing, but at the same time they also present potential risks to the future of projects. This is mostly down to different approaches of the most important aspect of tidal energy that needs to be considered, making it hard for technologists and developers to equally address all requirements. From this research it can be concluded that several of these risks can be mitigated early on providing that particular stakeholders are involved at the correct stage of a project.
Highlights
The marine energy industry has been forecast to be worth £6.1 billion to the UK economy by 2035, creating nearly 20,000 jobs in the process [1]
With the industry still being in its early stages of development there are numerous areas of uncertainty which need to be explored to secure the future of the industry
To bridge these gaps in data this paper looks at the marine energy industry as a whole, and with a focus on tidal energy, identification of stakeholders was firstly carried out along with their associated benefits and risks which they may present to developers
Summary
The marine energy industry has been forecast to be worth £6.1 billion to the UK economy by 2035, creating nearly 20,000 jobs in the process [1]. The growth of the UK marine energy industry so far has been helped by numerous government funding support schemes such as the Renewables Obligations Order which is “the main support mechanism” for renewable electricity projects within the UK, with smaller scale generation being supported through Feed in Tariffs [4]. For this to be achieved, the most up-to-date literature, reports and guidelines are included in the sections to follow
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