Welcome to the Neptune Renewable Energy company website
Marine Renewable Energy refers to the energy which is available in the coastal water around our shores. This energy is available as tidal currents and surface waves. The energy source is free, clean and accessible with the right technology. Neptune Renewable Energy is striving to develop the sites and technology to harness some of that power to contribute to household and industrial demands.
Alternative energy sources for electricity generation are at the forefront of governmental policy. In the UK the government has committed us to meeting a target of 10% of energy generation from renewable sources by 2010 and 20% by 2020 (DTI, July 2006). Much of this renewable energy so far has been derived from wind power since the technology is now well advanced and proven. However, wind power is intermittent and incapable of meeting all of the demand, hence further developments of technologies to exploit the marine resource are necessary.
Therefore, with an outstanding marine resource around the UK’s shores and within our estuaries there is great potential for the UK to deliver a substantial, secure, clean and economic energy for the UK and global markets.
Neptune Renewable Energy (NRE) is currently developing two technologies which will exploit both the tidal and wave resource. A tidal device called the Neptune Proteus and the less advanced wave device called the Neptune Triton.
NRE has developed and cost engineered the innovative Neptune Proteus Mark III to achieve a target capital cost of less than £1m/MW and operating cost of less than 5p/kWhr. These figures make the device very competitive with wind power generation and, unlike wind, tidal stream power is continuous and not intermittent.
NRE’s aim is to have a full scale demonstrator of the Neptune Proteus tidal system deployed in the Humber Estuary, UK, in 2008-09.
An artist’s impression of a Neptune Proteus array in the Humber.