Govt ‘squandering wave technology’
The government has been accused of squandering Britain’s embryonic wave energy system by failing to use to spend any of the £42 million budget it set aside for the technologies.
Parliamentary answers have revealed the entire budget for the Wave and Tidal stream Energy Demonstration Scheme has gone unspent since it was announced four years ago.
Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson, who obtained the information through parliamentary questions, said: “These figures show the yawning gulf between rhetoric and reality when it comes to this government’s record on renewable energy.
“Britain has world-leading potential when it comes to wave and tidal energy, yet the government is sitting idly on the funding which the sector so desperately needs.”
Answers received by Ms Swinson also show the £2 million budget for monitoring the environmental impact of wave and tidal energy has gone unspent, as has four fifths of the available budget for infrastructure support
