AS A student in the mid-1980s, fed up with paying astronomical rent to the landlords of east London, I decided to buy a house and let rooms to my friends.
Plans went well: I worked lucrative nightshifts through the summer to get a deposit (property was far cheaper then); I saw a couple of places I liked and applied for a mortgage. Suddenly, however, it all seemed like too much hassle, and instead I en
ded up forking out rent for the next decade, while watching house prices go through the roof and kicking myself for missing the opportunity.
I have a dawning sense of déjà vu when I look at Scotland's approach to marine energy. Without doubt, Scotland has a real economic opportunity with tidal and wave power. The enthusiasm of the industry for doing business in Scotland is only matched by that of politicians to welcome it.
No doubt the First Minister will reiterate that commitment when he speaks at a regeneration conference in Caithness on Monday, and you would be forgiven for having the impression that Scotland stood on the cusp of becoming the global leader in a tidal and wave energy.
But there is a danger that impressions are all that will be generated; that in years to come we will be watching other countries reap the marine energy rewards.
Government targets and financial incentives are focused on the production of electricity. That is all well and good – if we get to that stage – but fails to address Scotland's real economic opportunity. For, like the wind power industry, the marine energy sector will probably be composed of two distinct categories: generation and technology companies.
When the technology becomes commercially viable, generation companies are likely to be the present utility companies, often multinationals, like Eon and Iberdrola, owner of Scottish Power.
They understand the economics of power and have the financial clout to build large marine power plants. They'll do it if they can make a profit; and with energy minister Jim Mather's recent announcement of significantly increased levels of price support for electricity from tidal and wave sources, ultimately they stand a good chance of doing so here. If – and it's a very big if – the problems of grid capacity in the north of Scotland are resolved.
Before the utilities can generate marine electricity they need robust, reliable devices, capable of producing power at a commercially viable cost. This is where technology companies, those developing tidal and wave devices, come in. They will license that technology to generating companies to use in new power plants around the globe. If Scotland is to lead the world in marine energy it will be down to the expertise of technology companies and by exporting devices they could become a major part of the Scottish economy.
There is a precedent. Thirty years after the pioneering Danish wind power technology companies started a new industry, they still provide about 40 per cent of the world's wind turbines.
The potential export market for marine energy technology is vast. There are significant tidal resources in the Americas, New Zealand, South Africa, Russia, Indonesia and China. The wave power list is even longer. Marine energy would be a long-term Scottish economic asset; the technology is in its infancy and is likely to undergo decades of refinement. Like the benefits the Danes still gain from wind power technology, marine-energy innovation, with all the wealth and jobs that accrue from it, could be based in Scotland.
But there is a serious risk that this opportunity will never make the transition from media headlines to economic fact for one simple reason: money. Marine energy technology companies are often small start-up ventures, lacking financial muscle.
Scotland has attracted some of the industry leaders, like Pelamis, but although our seas have triggered their interest, in reality, technology companies do not need to be located near the relevant natural resources.
Scotland's primary attraction in the past was research and development funding. Both UK and Scottish governments offered grant schemes that successfully lured the majority of the early tidal and wave energy technology companies.
But that government research and development funding has all but dried up. No grants are presently available from the Scottish Government and the UK government now works through the Environmental Technology Institute (ETI). Its marine energy scheme is closed and in any case came with a catch: the ETI's private sector partners, including BP and Eon, were granted the intellectual property rights to the research it funded. That is hardly an enticing prospect for a small company whose technology is their primary asset.
Time is short for government: other countries are waking up to the economic potential of tidal and wave technology. Earlier this year, Ireland began offering marine energy research and development grants and this week the US followed suit.
For Scotland to continue as the world's leading location of this expertise, new grants are needed, and soon. Otherwise the industry will follow the money and go elsewhere.
The good news for government is that a new research and development scheme would not cost much. The old UK government scheme amounted to about £20 million over several years and the Scottish Government's one-off grants totalled £13 million.
A new scheme could cost considerably less than £10 million annually. In government spending terms, that's tiny.
To have the genuine prospect of becoming the world leader in a new technology, with major potential export markets is rare for any country; but with marine energy technology, Scotland has just that.
• Sam Ghibaldan is a former government special adviser and now works in the marine energy industry and as a freelance journalist
The full article contains 958 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
