George Eustice MP was delighted that the Government have decided to more than double the amount of ROCs available to wave and tidal energy projects from 2 to 5, after he proposed the idea in a Westminster Hall debate earlier this year.
A long-awaited review of the Renewables Obligation Certificate (ROC) scheme by the UK Government was published last week, and includes a raft of changes to how clean technologies are subsidised.
It includes an increase in the number of tradable ROCs awarded to wave and tidal energy projects from April 2013 from two ROCs per megawatt hour currently, to five ROCs per megawatt hour.
George commented, "I am delighted that the Government have made this announcement and demonstrated their support for these exciting new industries. It will be a tremendous boost to the Wave Hub and has the potential to lead to a significant supply of green, renewable energy to the grid, as well as hundreds of new Cornish jobs."
Claire Gibson, general manager at Wave Hub, which is the world’s largest grid-connected test site for wave energy technology, said: “The wave energy industry will welcome today’s announcement because it helps close the economic viability gap, which remains the biggest stumbling block to the commercial deployment of wave devices.
“That’s good news for Wave Hub because it means that device developers can rely on a much more supportive subsidy regime for the electricity they generate once they have a device in the water.”