Government Funding Ignores UK’s First Low Carbon Economic Area; Orecon Sinks

Posted on 04. Feb, 2010 by Ross in New Technologies, United Kingdom

The government has turned a blind eye to a key pledge in the world’s first Carbon Budget by allowing funds for wave power companies to be allocated almost entirely outside of the geographic area designated to see the benefits of the technology. As a result, Cornish wave power company Orecon has been forced to close, despite being at the heart of the government’s much vaunted first Low Carbon Economic Area.

The UK is entering a period where failing coal and gas power plants are combining with lethargic progress with wind and nuclear power to create the prospect of a massive energy shortage during this decade. As an island nation on the edge of the Atlantic, one resource which the UK has an almost endless supply of is wave and tidal power, but its has historically failed to invest effectively to realise the potential energy goldmine which surrounds it.

The introduction of the idea of Low Carbon Economic Areas was one of the key introductions of the UK government in order to stimulate growth and investment in green technologies. The concept was that different regions of the country would become specialists in different classes of low-carbon technology, ensuring that engineering and manufacturing jobs would be sensibly and evenly distributed around the country.

The first Low Carbon Economic Area was announced in the Carbon Budget as being the UK’s South West, and that it would be the focus for the nation’s investment into wave power technology. With massive amounts of coastline and strong exposure to Atlantic waves, the choice of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset to be the centre of wave power innovation made perfect sense.

However, the government’s