Marine Renewable Energy Market Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4750 words

Marine Renewable Energy Market Analysis - Essay Example Utilizing nature in the sense, using many natural elements only including various natural energy sources, humans have come up with many inventions and innovations. However, certain of these natural energy sources, have negative side-effects, which kind of destructs the nature or natural environment, from which it is accessed, thereby pushing the need to tap other eco-friendly renewable energy sources. Among them, Marine energy sources are proving to be a feasible and productive option. The United Kingdom not only has 50% of Europe's marine energy potential but the UK also is a prominent leader in the marine renewables market at the present. When these optimum exploitable wave resources as well as tidal stream resources are optimally tapped, it can provide sizable benefits to various sections or stakeholders. One of the key stakeholders is the government. With this sector being a small and upcoming one, it needs maximum support from the government to grow further. Government has been providing good financial support, but the view is, still more grants can be given by the government. This is particularly important in the context of high installation and operating costs involved with these wave and tidal projects. The capitals as well as operating costs are on the higher side, but with the development of technologies, it can reduce in the near future. In addition, this sector has potential for providing employment opportunities, but there are chances that other socio-economic structures in the vicinity of the projects could be affected. Technologies involved in this sector are manifold, and still it is in the development stage, with completely tuned devices and implementations still some years away. Thus, the UK Marine sector has good potential for growth, but still certain challenges exist. Contents 1 Introduction 1.1 Scope 4 1.2 Marine Renewable Energy 4 1.3 Marine Energy Development 5 1.4 Market Size and Growth 6 1.5 Key Competitors 7 2. Trend I: Interests of t he political Government 2.1 Government’s Role 9 2.2 Government’s funding 10 2.3 Need for more funding 10 3. Trend II: Economic Costs and socio-economic impacts 3.1 Installation and operating costs 11 3.2 Socio-economic costs 14 4. Trend III: Technology Development 4.1 Technologies Used 15 4.2 Technology with environmental perspective 16 5. Trend IV: Increasing Environmental Awareness 5.1 Negative impacts 16 5.2 Legislative backings 17 6. Conclusion 17 7. Appendices 20 8. References 21 1. Introduction 1.1 Scope This report will do an analysis of the external environment of the UK’s marine energy market using the PESTLE tool. Through the PESTLE analysis, the report will try to discuss not only the opportunities but also the threats that are prevailing in the marine energy market. By doing these analyses, the report will ‘glean’ four trends, which are visible now and importantly could be visible for the next three years in the marine energy market. The se trends as well as recommendations that can be implemented will provide an overview of the market, and could be helpful for the new entrants as well. The information for preparing this report was obtained from various online sources, which includes government reports, reliable websites, online books, etc. 1.2 Marine Renewable Energy Marine renewable energy constitutes into two sectors, Wave energy and Tidal energy. Wave energy is generated with the aid of wave movement. However, as wave movement and the resultant energy is irregular, a variety of infrastructures or prototypes are developed and installed in the sea to tap the energy. Devices are often separated by their location in the sea, particularly the depth of water. Figure.1 Wave energy (Carbon Trust 2006) On the other hand, Tidal