Wave power is a really, really stupid idea. That’s why it’s getting so much taxpayer subsidy

The surface of the sea is a hostile and unforgiving place. Although it covers 71 per cent of the planet, nothing much bigger than a speck lives there. Obviously, lots of slimy and scaly things swim around beneath the surface — but on the very top, pretty much zilch. Mother Nature has found niches for life in the desert, the Arctic and deep underground but, after 4.5 billion years of trying, she is passing on the surface of the sea, thanks all the same.

Now you would think that this very long experiment in trying to evolve life in a hostile environment would act as some kind of hint to the nice people at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). You would think — if Mother Nature cannot persuade even a simple plant to make its home there, then what chance does a lowly civil servant have?

You would think that given this, DECC would focus its subsidy efforts on the proven technology of solar panels, wind turbines and reducing waste at energy plants. You would think all of these things, but you would be wrong.

Against all the evidence, DECC has decided that the surface of the sea is just the place to build power stations, and is cheerfully spending millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money trying to make this work.

I suspect the reason the department is so fixated on this is that 10 per cent of the UK’s base energy needs are potentially available in the waves of the North Atlantic as they crash onto our shores. To turn that potential into reality, DECC is allocating an enormous subsidy of five Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) per hour for wave energy. This is the equivalent of about £220 for every hour of electricity produced.