Things have been awfully quiet on the marine renewables sector from this summer, after a flurry of projects were announced this past winter and spring. A Pike Research analysis of this emerging renewable energy opportunity with global market reach predicts that the new five years are critical to determining whether these technologies take off in response to climate change regulations and the need to look offshore for non-carbon energy sources.

Much of the news had been bad. For example, Pacific Gas & Electric has nixed one of its two R&D test sites on the northern coast of California, determining that the Fort Bragg site in Mendocino County was not viable, in part, due to environmental concerns. The project further up north in Humboldt County is still moving forward.

Good news comes in the form of new government support. The Obama Administration has just announced $11 million in funding to advance various hydrokinetic devices at six national laboratories scattered throughout the country: National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, CO; Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque, New Mexico;  Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Sequim, WA; Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Illinois; and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

On top of that, the Department of Energy is also allowing water power projects – which include wave, tidal, ocean current, river hydrokinetic and ocean thermal technologies – to compete for a share of $37 million in economic stimulus funding.

The Pike Research report, Hydrokinetic and Ocean Energy, forecasted that 2.7 GW of potential marine renewable capacity would come on line by 2015. All told, over 22 GW of projects are on the drawing boards, but one colossal project – a 14 GW tidal barrage proposed for the U.K. – faces immense environmental opposition.

The current economic recession has hit this sector harder than the more established renewable energy technologies, such as solar and wind. At this point, due to a lack of comparable incentives being offered to marine renewable options as have been awarded to solar, wind (as well as geothermal and biomass), the U.S. will likely cede the global leadership mantle on these immensely promising technologies to the U.K.