The Renewable Energy Association (REA), which has some 600 members across the spectrum of the UK renewables industry, has expressed disappointment that Lord Hunt’s announcement on a wave and tidal strategic environmental assessment (SEA) for England and Wales was merely a screening exercise to determine if it was necessary.

“It’s good that Government seems to recognise the need for an SEA, but we’d rather have heard that the work was actually going to start. The screening exercise is an unfortunate delay and the timescale needs to be expedited,” said Steph Merry, REA’s head of marine renewable energy.

The REA has been calling for a wave and tidal SEA to ensure urgently-required long-term leases can be granted for marine renewable developments on a commercial scale. Under present conditions The Crown Estate will only grant short-term leases for demonstration projects no larger than 10MW. That offers practically no incentive to major investment or large utilities.

In Scotland, where the government has already carried out an SEA, the Crown Estate has been able to open bidding in the Pentland Firth, resulting in 38 proposals for tidal devices up to 300MW in size. Previously only offshore wind, oil and gas have been subject to a SEA in England and Wales.

Steph Merry continued: “An SEA would make a huge difference to the development of commercial-scale wet renewables in England and Wales. The UK is currently a world leader in the development of wave and tidal stream devices. It is imperative that we keep hold of that lead in order to meet our renewable energy targets and to ensure jobs and investment in UK manufacturing now and in the future.”