Wave energy racing to catch up with wind

clipped from www.worldofrenewables.com BATH, England (Reuters) - Wave energy could catch up with commercially more advanced offshore wind power within five years, the head of pioneers Aquamarine Power Ltd told Reuters "What it took 25 years to do in the wind industry, we want to do in five years," Chief Executive Officer Martin McAdam said in an interview. "What we feel is we can offer a device in future that will be competitive with offshore wind energy. By 2014 we will have a commercially available device," he said. "Our smallest offering will be 10 megawatt. We hope we can install up to 100 MW in size from 2014." The latter amount is enough to power about 100,000 homes. Government adviser Carbon Trust has calculated marine energy could supply up to 20 percent of Britain's power but the technology is still at the prototype stage. To cut Britain's greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent from the 1990 level, the government is stepping up support for new renewable technology, including marine power.