According to Mike Underhill, the head of New Zealand’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA): “We believe New Zealand is an attractive proposition for marine energy developers. We’re a small country with a long coastline (more than 15,000 km), and significant wave energy potential – estimated to be around 8,000 MW, with a further 1,000 MW of tidal energy. To put that in perspective, New Zealand’s entire electricity generation capacity is just over 9,000 MW.”
Applications are now open for the New Zealand government’s Marine Energy Deployment Fund, which this year offers NZ$ 2 million for pre-commercial wave and tidal stream energy devices deployed in New Zealand waters.
The purpose of the Fund is to bring forward the development of marine energy in New Zealand by facilitating early deployment and adaptation of the technology. Ideally, projects receiving funding will help inform the New Zealand government and the wider marine energy industry of the key technical challenges and the economic, environmental and social benefits and costs associated with deploying wave and tidal stream technologies in New Zealand.
Applicants must be legal entities that are registered in New Zealand and have until close on Monday 23 November 2009 to present their applications. “Successful applications will ideally be pre-commercial projects that have a high probability of being commissioned, and will generate electricity that can be exported to a useful load within three years of the grant being awarded,” Mr Underhill explained. “We have an electricity grid that is similar in structure to that of many OECDs countries, as well as a strong history in operating a liberalised electricity market. In addition, there is the ease of doing business in a country which is politically stable, one of the least corrupt in the world, recognised for its environmental credentials, and known for its ‘can do’ attitude”, he said.
“We already generate an impressive 65% of our electricity from renewable sources such as hydro, geothermal and wind, and we’re aiming to expand that to 90%”. Furthermore, New Zealand has an enthusiastic and growing marine energy industry, supported by the Aotearoa Wave and Tidal Energy Association”, emphasised Underhill.
The recipient of the previous round of funding was Wave Energy Technology New Zealand (WET-NZ), a consortium made up of Industrial Research Limited (a Crown Research Institute) and private company Power Projects Limited. The consortium received NZ$ 760,000 to get a half-scale model of a wave energy generating device into the water over the next two years.
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