Crown Estate Scotland’s current flexible approach to leasing has been warmly welcomed by developers working in the tidal and wave energy sectors.

Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult carried out a survey on behalf of Crown Estate Scotland in 2023.

According to their survey they found that there was a significant appetite for development of both tidal energy and wave energy in Scotland but with each sector increasingly focused on differentiating their market positions – reflecting their differing priorities and challenges.

The report highlights that tidal energy is focused on utility scale (large-scale supply to grid) and community scale (local supply for local demand) developments, whilst the wave sector views its future development in more offshore applications, including decarbonisation of oil and gas and colocation opportunities.

Several common areas of challenge for projects in the development stages were also found. These are primarily around consenting timelines, grid connections, and financing.

Crown Estate Scotland feels that with the results of its commissioned report that the current approach to leasing – where leases for projects of up to 30MW are awarded on an ad-hoc basis, with each considered on individual merit against the evaluation criteria – was appropriate. However further consideration of the 30MW capacity limit might be appropriate to reflect credible aspirations for tidal projects in the future.

Caitlin Byers, Development Manager for Crown Estate Scotland, said:

“This feedback from those working on the frontline of the wave energy and tidal stream sectors is invaluable in providing us with the evidence we need to improve processes and support these vital industries to play their part in helping reach net-zero targets.

“It is clear that the two technologies – wave and tidal – share common challenges in addition to specific barriers; we at Crown Estate Scotland are determined to play our part in addressing those obstacles and to support the tidal and wave energy industries to help Scotland benefit from some of the best tidal and wave energy resources in Europe.”

A number of improvements to the current leasing mechanism were identified, with some achievable in the short term and others requiring longer-term initiatives and policy support.

Simon Cheeseman, Sector Lead for Wave & Tidal Energy at ORE Catapult, said:

“We’re delighted to deliver this important survey. There is clear appetite from wave and tidal developers to deploy in Scotland, and Crown Estate Scotland’s review to look at ways to accelerate commercialisation is perfect timing for the marine energy sector that is gearing up to deploy at scale.”

The executive summary of the ORE Catapult report can be found here