Marine Energy Task Force launched

In a keynote speech at the Marine Energy Wales (MEW) Conference on 8 May 2025, Michael Shanks, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, announced the formation of a Marine Energy Task Force, aimed at maximizing the potential of the UK's tidal and wave energy technologies.

The Task Force will be industry-led and will deliver a “strategic roadmap” which will include recommendations for removing barriers, and estimates of the investment required.

The announcement was hailed as “a moment of clarity and commitment for a sector ready to scale” by Marine Energy Wales, and has been welcomed by leading wave energy innovator, CorPower Ocean, and tidal energy pioneers Nova Innovation.

Based on a policy paper from Supergen ORE Hub and the Policy and Innovation Group at the University of Edinburgh, published in April 2025, tidal stream and wave energy could add £50bn to the UK economy by 2050, and support over 80,000 jobs across the UK. These figures are based on deployments of 6.2GW of tidal stream and 6.4GW of wave energy by 2050.

Achieving these levels of deployments will of course require governmental support, and both public and private investment, so it is encouraging to see a dedicated Task Force taking on these issues. We look forward to reading the Task Force's conclusions, which will be published in due course by the UK Marine Energy Council.