Barriers to stakeholder engagement in the Welsh Marine Renewable Energy Sector

The requirement to achieve net zero by 2050 (UK Government, 2022[i]) is widely accepted by UK energy policymakers and the industry sector. In order to achieve this, there is a need to reduce energy consumption and rapidly upscale the deployment of marine renewable energy (MRE) technologies. Wales is currently lagging behind rest of UK in terms of energy generation (BEIS[ii]), despite having the second highest tidal range in world, large fetch and strong winds. The natural resources are in place to produce vast amounts of offshore wind, wave and tidal energy (Lewis, 2015[iii]; James, 2018[iv]). However, effective use of human resources is also necessary in order to tap into these natural resources.