RENEWABLE ENERGY
Does marine energy have a place in the energy transition? The International Renewable Energy Agency estimates that 90 % of the world’ s electricity can, and should, come from renewable energy by 2050. Energy companies have integrated this into their strategies, often aiming to significantly boost renewables.
NextEra Energy aims to reach 81 GW of renewables and energy storage capacity by 2027. In its 2024 sustainability report, John Ketchum, the company’ s President and CEO, said:“ Today, our vision is focused on deploying even more renewables and storage, which in the future we expect to be supplemented by green hydrogen as a way to convert gas turbines to generate emissions-free baseload generation.”
Iberdrola is targeting 95 GW of installed renewables by 2030.“ We need to accelerate the expansion of electrification through renewables to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels,” says Ignacio Galán, President of Iberdrola.“ Tripling renewables by 2030 is feasible and will mobilise investments of US $ 2.2bn a year.”
Marine energy, however, is not yet mentioned in the strategies of many big energy businesses. Pilots are being tested and projects are being built, but both wave and tidal energy have a long way to go before the technologies could play a significant role in the energy transition. In 2025, marine energy costs roughly US $ 350 per MWh – for comparison, natural gas is around US $ 36 per MWh and wind is roughly US $ 50 per MWh in Europe.
Will marine energy grow? Despite such high prices currently, progress is possible and has been done before. In 2009, electricity from utilityscale solar photovoltaics cost US $ 496 per MWh and in 2025 this has dropped to around US $ 50 per MWh. This is nearly a 90 % decrease in price over 16 years. Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult estimates following an optimistic scenario that the price of marine energy could fall to about US $ 67 per MWh by 2035. This could make it lower than current nuclear energy prices if solutions are successfully commercialised.
“ Today, our vision is focused on deploying even more renewables and storage”
JOHN KETCHUM, PRESIDENT AND CEO, NEXTERA ENERGY
208 August 2025