Wave & Tidal Renewable Energy

Wave and tidal energy is generated from the movement of wave and tidal flows. Wave and tidal power can be more predictable and consistent than wind. 

Scotland is pioneering wave and tidal technology, developing devices and equipment to demonstrate wave and tidal stream as a renewable energy source. Orkney hosts the world's first grid-connected wave and tidal energy centre, and the world’s largest tidal turbine. The Pentland Firth hosts the world’s largest planned tidal stream array (Scottish Government, 2020). It is believed that the UK has the potential to deliver around 35% of Europe's wave energy potential and 50% of Europe's tidal energy potential (OREF, n.d.).

92.4% of all planned capacity for renewables comes from wind.  The capacity of wave and tidal energy in Scotland is small (e.g. 10MW in Sept 2024), but it is a developing technology with projects up to 344MW in planning/development. See Fig. 1 for details of wind/tidal capacity and electricity generation. As of 2023, the East Grampian Coast had no installed capacity and therefore no generation of wave/tidal renewable energy (UK Government, 2024b).

Wave Energy Scotland (WES) was created at the request of the Scottish Government to develop and utilise innovative wave energy technology for economic and environmental benefit. WES has invested up to £50 million in wave energy technology contracts, awarding 132 contracts to date (WES, n.d.).  A report comissioned by WES and Scottish Enterprise on the Future Economic Potential of Tidal Stream and Wave Energy in Scotland found that up to 9GW of tidal and wave energy could be deployed in Scottish waters by 2050, and could generate over £8 billion in economic benefit to the Scottish economy. The report also found that these deployments could contrbute over 15,000 jobs in 2050, particularly to coastal communities (Noble et al, 2025).