05/12/2025 | News release | Distributed by Public on 05/12/2025 06:42
Explaining marine energy technology and its potential and how standards and conformity assessment help its commercialization will be the focus of IEC experts during their attendance of the All-Energy conference, which will take place next week in Glasgow. The event, which is due on 14 and 15 May, brings together investors, project developers, end users, tech developers and policy makers, as well as IEC standardization experts.
Speakers will include Jonathan Colby, who is the Chair of the committee which prepares standards for marine energy systems in the IEC. Another speaker will be Dr Winston D'Souza, another expert from the committee, who has a wide experience of marine projects in the field and who is also very much involved in IECRE, which is the internationally accepted conformity assessment system for all power plants producing, storing or converting energy from solar PV, wind and various forms of marine energy.
"Jonathan will set the wider picture and talk about the role of standards and conformity assessment in helping insurers and investors gain confidence in marine technology, while I will be doing a deep dive and talk about the projects I have been involved with and how the IEC Standards and IECRE have been crucial," says D'Souza.
There are at least four different technologies to harness the energy of the sea - ocean thermal energy, salinity gradient energy, tidal energy and wave energy.
Ocean thermal conversion exploits the difference in temperature between deep and surface waters, while salinity gradient generation converts the difference in salt concentration between fresh and salt water. Wave energy converters capture energy from the motion of waves through either floating or submerged devices, and tidal turbines generate electricity from the tides caused by the gravitational force of the moon.
The IEC paves the way for all these technologies to be used safely and efficiently.