Novel renewables market intelligence
Tidal, wave, osmotic, airborne wind, and next-generation energy technologies.
Beyond established solar, wind, and hydro, a range of novel renewable technologies are progressing from laboratory and demonstration stages toward commercial viability. These include tidal stream and tidal range energy, wave energy converters, osmotic power (salinity gradient energy), airborne wind energy systems, concentrated solar power with advanced thermal storage, and next-generation photovoltaic concepts like perovskite tandem cells and agrivoltaics.
Tidal energy is the most mature of these emerging categories. Orbital Marine Power's O2 turbine in Scotland, MeyGen (the world's largest tidal stream array in the Pentland Firth), and Nova Innovation's Shetland array demonstrate commercial-scale tidal generation. Tidal offers a uniquely predictable renewable resource — unlike wind and solar, tidal patterns are known decades in advance. The UK's Contracts for Difference now include a ring-fenced allocation for tidal stream, providing the revenue certainty developers need to scale.
Wave energy, airborne wind, and advanced solar concepts remain at earlier stages but attract growing investment. CorPower Ocean, Carnegie Clean Energy, and OceanEnergy are advancing wave energy converters through multi-year ocean testing programs. Perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells — with laboratory efficiencies now exceeding 34.8% and climbing toward 35% — have already broken the practical efficiency ceiling of conventional silicon PV. Oxford PV shipped the first commercial perovskite tandem modules in 2024, while LONGi, JinkoSolar, and Hanwha Qcells are scaling toward gigawatt-level production.
Delphidata tracks novel renewable projects from early-stage demonstration through to commercial deployment, technology developer pipelines, test site and demonstration zone activity, grant and venture funding, and the regulatory frameworks supporting emerging energy technology commercialization.
What Delphidata tracks.
Structured data across the full value chain.
Tidal and wave energy projects
Tidal stream turbines, tidal range barrages and lagoons, and wave energy converter deployments. Mapped with technology type, capacity, test site location, developer, performance data, and progression through technology readiness levels.
Next-generation solar
Perovskite and tandem solar cell manufacturing scale-up, concentrated solar power with advanced thermal storage, floating solar (floatovoltaics), and agrivoltaic installations. Tracking efficiency milestones, production capacity announcements, and commercial deployment projects.
Airborne and emerging wind
Airborne wind energy systems using tethered kites, drones, or rigid-wing aircraft to harvest high-altitude wind. Developers including Kitemill, SkySails Power, Kitepower, and EnerKíte. Also covering bladeless wind and vortex-induced vibration concepts.
Technology developers and funding
Venture capital, government grants (EU Innovation Fund, ARPA-E, Wave Energy Scotland), and strategic corporate investment flowing into novel renewable technologies. Connected to the companies and projects each funding round supports.
Who uses this intelligence.
Energy companies and utilities
Evaluate emerging renewable technologies for portfolio diversification, track the progression of novel renewables from demonstration to bankability, and identify early-stage partnership or investment opportunities.
Investors and venture capital
Screen novel renewable technology investments by technology readiness level, demonstration track record, market addressability, and the strength of regulatory support mechanisms in target deployment markets.
Government and policy teams
Monitor the effectiveness of innovation support programs, track technology readiness progression against deployment targets, and assess which novel renewable technologies are approaching commercial viability.
Grid operators and system planners
Assess the resource characteristics of novel renewables — particularly the predictability of tidal energy — for long-term grid planning and integration with established variable renewable sources.