The Future of Marine Renewable Energies. Summary of the Ifremer Futures Study on Marine Renewable Energies to 2030

The challenge posed by climate change and the predicted scarcity of fossil fuels is so great that energy questions are increasingly in the headlines. There has, in this context, been an increasing promotion of renewable energies, as is attested by France and the EU’s stated objective of producing 20% of consumed energy from renewable sources by 2020.
Among the different renewable energies, the ocean represents an immense reserve (tidal and tidal-stream energy, wave and wind power, marine biomass etc.) and a genuine asset for those countries like France which have the good fortune to have many seaboards (both at home and overseas). In order to gauge the potential of marine renewable energies, Ifremer began an enormous foresight exercise in March 2007 examining scenarios to the year 2030 in partnership with the main actors in the maritime world and with methodological support from Futuribles.
Denis Lacroix and Michel Paillard, who were members of the steering committee of that study, present the broad outlines of this foresight exercise and the possible prospects for marine renewable energies. After reviewing the various forms of marine energy, they set out the methods followed and the range of possible scenarios selected, together with the potential of the different technologies associated with marine renewable energies. They then show the extent to which these energies could contribute to the French energy supply to 2030, before developing a “normative” scenario that can serve as a strategic axis for French energy policy so far as marine renewable energies are concerned (on the basis of a contribution of around 3% to the French energy mix in 2020).