ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Renewable energy at sea isn't limited to offshore wind turbines. There are also devices that go under the water, harnessing wave and tidal power. Reporter Emma Jacobs visited Scotland's Orkney Islands, where types of ocean renewables have been tested more than anywhere else in the world.
EMMA JACOBS, BYLINE: A strong wind is blowing in from the Atlantic Ocean at the European Marine Energy Centre's wave power testing site.
LISA MACKENZIE: As you can see, we've got huge waves rolling in today.
JACOBS: Lisa Mackenzie has worked for the center - EMEC for short - for 13 years. She's also from here, the Orkney Islands off the north coast of Scotland. Offshore, where devices get tested, the average wave is between 6 to 9 feet high.
MACKENZIE: But we have recorded waves of over 18 meters - if you think of, like, a two- or three-story house.
(SOUNDBITE OF LOCK CLICKING)
JACOBS: Mackenzie unlocks the substation where long undersea cables bring electricity to the local power grid generated by waves spinning turbines. EMEC opened in 2003 as the first testing site for such devices, shortening the time companies need to test them.
MACKENZIE: They can connect up, essentially like a plug-and-play facility.
JACOBS: A two-hour ferry ride away, EMEC has another testing site for tidal turbines, which work slightly differently than wave technology.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Inaudible).
JACOBS: The island of Eday has around 160 residents. Ian Ford (ph) works shifts in the island's only cafe.
IAN FORD: Yeah. Follow me.
JACOBS: Ford wishes he saw more devices in the water. Right now, there's just one.
FORD: It left me quite forlorn that it's technology that - whilst we continue to burn fossil fuels, why isn't this - you know, why aren't there a hundred of these?
JACOBS: But EMEC and several companies actually do plan to deploy small farms of turbines here over the next few years. One of those companies is Orbital Marine Power.
(CROSSTALK)
JACOBS: At an ocean energy conference held a few hours south of the testing site, Orbital's CFO, Chris Milne, sounded cautiously upbeat.
CHRIS MILNE: That technology in development, it works. And now it's about how do we scale up.
JACOBS: Ocean renewables still depend heavily on government support, once the case for wind and solar. But Milne and his colleagues want more private financing.
MILNE: We are still going through a gestation period of turning into - well, hopefully, the ugly duckling turning into the swan.
JACOBS: Industry leaders say the constant and predictable output of their technology can compliment more intermittent wind and solar. Remi Gruet is CEO of the association Ocean Energy Europe.
REMI GRUET: I can tell you today how much this device in this area is going to produce in 10 years on a Thursday at 2 o'clock in the afternoon.
JACOBS: Gruet says his sector is on the verge of mass production.
GRUET: More devices means larger economies of scale and lower prices per kilowatt-hour.
JACOBS: He estimates ocean renewables could meet 10% of Europe's electricity needs. Meanwhile, back on the island of Eday, growth can't come fast enough for Ian Ford.
FORD: Isn't three-quarters of our planet water? It's sloshing around everywhere, and we don't really do a huge amount with it.
JACOBS: If the industry can realize its ambitions, that may not be true for long.
For NPR News, I'm Emma Jacobs in Orkney, Scotland.
(SOUNDBITE OF JEAN CARNE, ADRIAN YOUNGE AND ALI SHAHEED MUHAMMAD SONG, "VISIONS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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