New England Marine Renewable Energy Consortium

The New England Marine Renewable Energy Consortium (MREC) is an organization comprised of industry, academia, government agencies, municipalities, public interest groups, and concerned individuals. Its focus is to foster the development of ocean based renewable energy (wave, tidal, current and ocean wind). The consortium seeks to develop a network of technology developers and energy users who will collectively define the needs of this nascent industry and work to bring together the required technology, capital, infrastructure, and human resources to implement ocean based renewable energy in the most sustainable manner for the region.

Vision

The vision of MREC is a marine renewable energy system that will provide economically priced electricity while supporting the manufacturing and service industry such a system requires.


Mission

The mission of MREC is to monitor and characterize the industry’s changing needs, to carry out activities to achieve the funding that is required to enable the industry’s growth and to support the implementation of projects. It is anticipated that this would include establishment of a National Marine Renewable Energy Research, Development and Demonstration Center that would incorporate a research infrastructure, development labs and demonstration sites in the region. Such a center would support both research and development, as well as provide access to testing and demonstration infrastructure that would include one or more ocean test sites. Such sites would be pre-approved for pilot generation and carefully monitored to minimize environmental impacts.