UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

OTHER RELEVANT NATIONAL ACTIVITIES

The National Hydropower Association (NHA) became the national trade association for the U.S. marine renewable energy (MRE) industry in 2014, assuming the role that had formerly been held by the Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition (OREC). A Joint Working Group, comprised of industry representatives, OREC and the NHA, led the transition effort. The U.S. MRE industry had been assessing ways to unify and strengthen its voice and, accordingly, a varied and diverse group of industry representatives including technology developers, academic institutions, component suppliers and service professionals from the wave/tidal/ocean current/riverine sectors participated in the Joint Working Group.

In November 2014, both the NHA Board of Directors and the OREC Board of Directors voted unanimously to accept and act on the Joint Working Group’s recommendations and proposal. The result was that the NHA’s former Ocean, Tidal and New Technologies Council was renamed the Marine Energy Council. The Marine Energy Council will operate as a semi-autonomous group within the NHA, and it will choose and elect its own leadership in early 2015.

One of the first actions taken by the Marine Energy Council was to begin making plans for an annual conference to replace the former Global Marine Renewable Energy Conference, and to continue supporting the annual Water Power Program-sponsored Marine Energy Technology Symposium. (The Symposium has historically run concurrently with the Global Marine Renewable Energy Conference.) A new conference, called the International Marine Renewable Energy Conference, is scheduled to take place in Washington, D.C. on April 27-29, 2015.