Under the serious pressure of energyshortages and environmental pollution, China has formulated various strategymeasures to accelerate the development of renewable energy technologies. Amongthem the medium and long-term China’s target, increasing the portion ofrenewable energy in the final primary energy consumption to 15% by 2020, was setin Medium and Long-Term Development Plan for Renewable Energy in China. It is adifficult task, while it is an opportunity for renewable energy technologies. Atpresent, China is in the midst of the tidal power utilization feasibility studystage, and has spent $3.3 billion on related survey work, is expected to startconstruction as early as 10 years later. As one of the promising renewableenergy resources, tidal current energy has no choice but to gain a significantdevelopment during this period and substantially contribute to the accomplishmentof the renewable energy targets. The efforts in research and development intidal current energy have gained the support of the national financial budget.The government of China supports tidal current energy by establishing R&Dplans to fund many R&D projects directly. The main government technologyR&D plans include Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), National HighTechnology Research and Development Program (‘‘863’’ Program) and National KeyTechnology R&D Program (NKTRDP). 

The China Wave & Tidal Energy Summit2015  organized by Genesis ResourcesConsulting China and to be held on 9-10 JULY 2015, with the aim to discuss updatedindustry development, build up profitable and sustainable partnership and helpyou to capitalize in china tidal energy industry.

It is well noted in China that US AgencyAnnounces Wave Energy Prize Competition

Experts say that sun and wind are therichest sources of clean, renewable energy. But ocean waves also createpowerful, clean energy. So, the U.S Department of Energy has announced a $1.5million-dollar prize for the winner of a competition on how to capture that energy.

The Department of Energy says that wavesand tides along U.S. coasts create about 1,420 terawatt-hours of energy a year.That is equal to the amount of energy produced by more than 330 nuclear powerfactories.

But today's technologies can only captureabout 20 percent of the energy from ocean waves. Jose Zayas is the director ofthe Wind and Water Power Technologies Office at the Department of Energy. Hesays 20 percent is too low for an investment in ocean wave energy to beeconomical. He says it needs to be up in the high 30 percent to 40 percent.

"...we believe that once you achievethat then the economic competiveness of this industry really comes to life andthat's really the target that we are shooting for."

The Department of Energy has launched theWave Energy Prize competition to encourage development of new technologies.

But developing new devices to capture waveenergy can be difficult. Wave capture machines must operate in oceans

Competition organizers expect most of thenew ideas to come from established energy companies as well as someuniversities and research centers. Mr. Zayas says testing the new technologieswill be done in several steps using scaled models. A scaled model is a smallerform of a larger object or structure.

"We would have 1/50th scale testingwhere we would do the first fundamental evaluation of their performance, aswell as making sure that they are on a pathway that can assure them successtowards a prize...and near the end, we will have about 10 teams, it is ourhope."

The scaled models will be tested at theUnited States Navy's large indoor testing pool near Washington. Machines at thepool can create ocean-size waves. Mr. Zayas says the models will be tested toshow how much ocean wave energy they can capture.

The competition will not require themachines to produce electrical power. He says changing the mechanical kineticenergy into electrical energy is easy.

Mr.Zayas says the main goal of the Wave Energy Prize is to develop a new set ofpower producing technologies for the future. Developers of the best performingdevices will receive prizes from $250,000 to as much as $1.5 million.