KEY POINTS:
The Government is backing new technology that harnesses the energy of sea currents and waves to produce electricity - but it is likely to be 15 to 20 years before any significant amount of power is generated.
Its new energy strategy features a push for renewable energy, particularly wind and geothermal.
But in an unexpected addition, Energy Minister David Parker also indicated he had approval for a $8 million contestable fund to back the early deployment of marine-based electricity generation. Mr Parker said the marine technology was at about the same stage as wind power technology was 10 years ago and he wanted the country to be an early adopter of the marine option.
"This fund is not for research and development, it's for deployment," he said. "We want to start putting them around our coast."
The technology involves harnessing wave power by using floating infrastructure or underwater turbines. Tidal flows can also be harnessed.
Professor Ralph Sims, director of Massey University's Centre for Energy Research, said marine technology had great potential but a long way to go.
"There's a lot of rose-tinted glasses as to what might happen but, on the other hand, we have to push it as fast as we can," he said.
Professor Sims said an underwater turbine with a five-metre diameter could produce as much electricity as a 100-metre wind turbine.
"That's the beauty of them," he said. "But it will be about 15 or 20 years before we get any significant amount of power generated that way."
Two commercial wave-energy devices are already operating in Portugal and Scotland. Many devices tested by overseas developers have not been able to withstand the harsh marine environment.
Possible locations here include Cook Strait, the water near D'Urville Island at the top of the South Island and inlets such as Manukau or Kaipara.
Although wind power was in favour, the impact of a Government idea to group together consent applications for wind and geothermal generation projects was uncertain.
Mr Parker said substantial amounts of wind capacity were still available at a lower cost than gas but he emphasised the importance of using the most efficient sites.
Meridian Energy, which has been battling to build a sizeable wind farm at Makara on the southwest coast of Wellington, said more detail was needed.
Spokesman Alan Seay said given that the energy strategy placed heavy emphasis on renewables, "we do need to look at some way of speeding up the process to get at them".
Meridian has been waiting 18 months to get the go-ahead for Makara.
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