Abstract
For both environmental and energy security reasons, there is a growing recognition that existing fossil fuel technology cannot continue to be as heavily used as in the past and there is a growing movement towards generation technologies which operate with low, or zero, carbon emissions. This includes renewable technologies, such as hydro, on- and off-shore wind, and marine (wave and tidal) devices. The use of wind technology to generate electricity has grown rapidly across the UK in the last decade. However, other renewable technologies, such as marine, have also received both financial support and political interest and the first generation of economically viable devices is now close to market.