IEA Ocean Energy Systems (IEA-OES) has released the 2021 Tidal Current Energy Developments Highlights. This brochure features examples of projects in member countries that show continued progress.

Advances in tidal energy include:

• The energy of moving water currents can be harnessed with tidal current turbines seabed mounted or floating.
• The method for extracting energy from tidal streams is approaching design convergence. Horizontal axis turbines have shown to be the most employed technologies. Alternative designs include vertical axis turbines and tidal kites.
• The technology is approaching commercialization, with the deployment of full-scale devices and first arrays in real sea conditions.
• Progress in recent years is demonstrated by the operating hours accumulated, capacity deployed and electricity generated.
• There is a need for further technology investigation and demonstration for tidal current energy devices in real sea conditions for long periods of time providing invaluable experience regarding performance, reliability, availability, maintainability, survivability and environmental impact.

More information on ocean energy projects and policies can be found in the IEA-OES Annual Report.