The WATTS conference seems to have been a success, although the overall vibe is that the wave and tidal industries are only beginning to come to grips with the breadth of challenges faced before commercial scale marine energy farms are in the water.
There's not just technology risk - although there's plenty of that - but also regulatory and consenting risk and difficulties of access to funding.
It's becoming clear that there are stacks of Environmental Impact Assessment and other monitoring and baselining required. The worry is that the costs of all of this will kill off any smaller wave and tidal demonstration and pre-commercial projects which can find the funding. Is this emerging industry being loaded with unnecessary costs at a stage when it really can't afford them?
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