Marine Energy Council welcomes 13 new partners

The Marine Energy Council (MEC) has announced that 13 new companies have joined the industry group as Lead Partners.

MEC's Lead Partners are leaders in the tidal stream and wave energy sectors and represent innovative companies working to realise the UK's 30GW+ of marine energy potential.

These Partners will take on positions on the MEC Board and provide strategic direction on MEC's activities.

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The Lead Partners are:

• CorPower Ocean: a Swedish wave energy company with a pilot-project currently deployed in Portugal and a 5MW array planned in Ireland.
• The European Marine Energy Centre: first established in 2003 EMEC is a world-leading test centre that has delivered over £370m ($473m) GVA to the UK economy.
• HydroQuest: a leading French tidal stream company that has successfully piloted its 1MW array turbine for two years.
• HydroWing: successfully secured a 10MW tidal stream contract in the Government’s latest renewable auction, HydroWing recently opened up new offices in north Wales to support project delivery.
• Leask Marine: international marine contractors that have completed over 900 major offshore projects around the world.
• Magallanes Renovables: a Spanish tidal stream company that has secured over 10MW renewable contracts to deliver projects in Scotland and Wales.
• Minesto: with operations in Wales, Sweden, the Faroe Islands, Northern Ireland and Taiwan, Minesto is a Nasdaq-listed tidal stream kite company. Minesto is playing a leading role in delivering the Faroe Islands’ ambition to deliver a decarbonised energy system by 2030.
• Morlais: Anglesey-based tidal stream energy project with 240MW of tidal stream capacity.
• Nova Innovation: a world-leading marine energy company and experts in tidal stream, floating solar and marine services. In 2023, Nova Innovation secured Horizon Europe funding to deliver SEASTAR and install a 16 tidal turbine array in Orkney.
• Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult: the UK’s leading innovation centre for offshore renewable energy.
• Spiralis Energy: an Earthshot Prize nominee tidal developer that successfully tested its axial skelter prototype in May 2024. Spiralis is seeking to deploy its first array comprised of turbines made of recycled plastic, survivable for 25 years in the ocean.
• Scottish Renewables: the voice of Scotland’s renewable energy industry.
• Wave Energy Scotland: a Scottish Government programme that has supported over 130 projects, committing £50m ($64m) to 300 separate organisations, across 18 countries.

Sue Barr, chair of the MEC commented in a statement: “Tidal stream and wave energy can have a key role in delivering the UK’s net zero ambitions. The MEC was created to give tidal stream and wave energy a voice and support efforts to make the UK attractive to investors and technology developers from around the world.

“Thanks to the support of our Lead Partners our work can continue. With a world-leading pipeline of tidal stream projects and significant wave energy resource, I look forward to working with the Lead Partners and the new Board in realising the UK’s marine energy potential.”

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The MEC was established in 2018 and has worked to improve the investment landscape of marine energy in the UK and raise the profile of the resource's role in the future energy mix.

To support the organisation's expansion and to increase its capacity the MEC introduced the Lead Partnership model for 2024/25.

Listen to this episode of the Energy Transitions podcast for exclusive insights from Neil Kermode, managing director of the European Marine Energy Centre, about the exciting role of marine energy in our decarbonised future energy system.