What are the selling points of marine energy?
Why it matters: Europe's clean energy milestone underscores the urgent need for diverse, predictable renewables to stabilize the grid.
- Ember's European Electricity Review found that wind and solar accounted for 30% of EU power in 2025, exceeding fossil fuels (29%) and marking a record 369 TWh for solar.
- Experts acknowledge the challenge of integrating intermittent solar and wind into the grid, favoring large lithium battery packs and pumped hydro for energy storage.
- Marine energy, including predictable tidal power, ocean thermal, salinity gradient, and wave energy, is emerging as a potentially cheaper and cleaner alternative to address intermittency, with significant untapped potential.
- IEC expert Peter Scheijgrond emphasizes the predictability of tidal energy, noting its consistent patterns allow for accurate forecasting a century in advance.
- Bluespring, led by Peter Scheijgrond, focuses on public-private partnerships to finance and implement ocean renewable energy projects, particularly demonstration at sea.
Europe reached a significant clean energy milestone in 2025, with wind and solar power surpassing fossil fuels in the EU's electricity mix for the first time, according to a report by Ember. While this marks a "tipping point" for some experts, the intermittency of these sources highlights the need for diverse energy storage and alternative renewable solutions like marine energy, which offers predictable power generation.
