Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to invest in research on the (a) improvement and (b) optimisation of tidal power.

In July this year over 40MW of new tidal stream capacity was procured via the government’s flagship Contracts for Difference scheme. This contract award will enable tidal stream developers to gain operational experience and work on improving and optimising their technologies. Tidal stream continues to be eligible for a suite of competitively allocated Net Zero innovation grant funding opportunities, with the Government having spent over £80m on marine energy innovation since 2010.