Now is the Time for Marine Energy
Marine energy technologies — powered by water-based resources such as river and ocean currents, tides, and waves — are undergoing rapid innovation. These technologies are critical to advancing American leadership in affordable, reliable, and secure energy, strengthening U.S. national security, supporting critical infrastructure, and delivering power where reliable energy sources are scarce.
Demonstration projects and research supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) confirm that marine energy technologies offer meaningful benefits to the electric system — and open significant opportunities for off-grid and mission-critical applications.
A number of US companies will be deploying their next generation marine energy systems in US waters over the next 12-18 months, dramatically lowering the delivered cost of electricity and in many cases, providing the lowest cost electricity solution for their customers. With successful deployments, the US marine energy industry is poised to dramatically accelerate its impact on powering the US economy and exporting these technologies globally over the coming decade.
The National Hydropower Association's Marine Energy Council (MEC) is the U.S. national trade group dedicated to bringing these resources to market — working alongside private sector developers, research institutions, and government partners to accelerate commercialization.
By the Numbers: Marine Energy Resources
The U.S. marine energy resource is vast — and almost entirely untapped. Across wave, tidal, ocean current, and riverine sources, the technical potential exceeds half of all electricity the nation generated in 2019.
According to the DOE report Marine Energy in the United States: An Overview of Opportunities, the fifty-state total technical resource of at least 2,300 terawatt-hours (TWh) per year is equivalent to 57 percent of total electricity generated in 2019 and could power approximately 220 million homes.
For comparison, total solar generation in 2019 was 103 TWh — just 2% of all U.S. electricity generation. Realizing these potentials will increase economic growth, create thousands of high-value jobs, support a reliable electricity grid, and promote exports in manufacturing and related services.
Globally, the IEA predicts that by 2050 over 300 GW of marine energy capacity will be installed — resulting in $35 billion of investment, 680,000 direct jobs, and a reduction of 500 million tons of CO₂ per year.
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Total ResourceMarine Energy’s Strategic Role
Marine energy is not competing to be another renewable on the grid. It is a strategic power source for the places and missions where reliable energy is hardest to come by.
Defense & National Security
Forward operating bases, remote installations, and undersea surveillance systems require persistent, covert power that cannot depend on fuel supply chains. Marine energy delivers continuous electricity without resupply — reducing vulnerability in contested or austere environments.
Offshore Oil & Gas
Offshore platforms require constant power far from shore. Marine energy can provide on-site generation for platform operations, subsea equipment, and emerging offshore hydrogen production — reducing diesel consumption and emissions while strengthening energy resilience at the wellhead.
Data Centers
The explosive growth of AI and cloud computing is driving unprecedented demand for reliable, always-on power. Marine energy's predictable, baseload generation makes it an ideal match for data center operators seeking to meet sustainability targets without sacrificing uptime. Coastal and riverine sites place generation close to where large-scale computing infrastructure is increasingly being sited — reducing transmission costs and grid dependency.
Critical Minerals
Offshore mineral extraction and deep-sea mining operations require continuous power in remote, grid-isolated environments. Marine energy can provide on-site, carbon-free electricity directly at the source — eliminating the fuel logistics that drive up costs and emissions in these operations. As the U.S. moves to secure domestic critical mineral supply chains, marine energy offers a strategic power solution that scales with extraction demand.
Remote & Island Communities
Hundreds of Alaskan villages and island communities pay some of the highest electricity rates in the nation, importing diesel by barge or small aircraft. Tidal and riverine marine energy can displace that dependency entirely, delivering local, low-cost, carbon-free power where the grid will never reach.
Predictable Grid-Scale Power
Unlike variable renewable energy sources, tidal and ocean current energy follow astronomical cycles — knowable years in advance. That predictability makes marine energy uniquely valuable as a firm, dispatchable complement to variable renewables, supporting grid stability without large-scale storage.
