3 trial parks will harness wave and tidal power

China plans to build three marine renewable-energy trial parks by 2016, to help speed up the commercial expansion of the wave and tidal power industry, a senior official said.

"The parks will be developed in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, Zhoushan, Zhejiang province and Weihai, Shandong province, to help accelerate research and development in marine energy technologies," said Kang Jian, deputy director of the science and technology department of the State Oceanic Administration, on the eve of the World Oceans Day. Such parks generate electricity by converting the energy of waves and tides.

The site in Zhuhai will be a wave park, where a 300-kilowatt wave farm and a test site will be built, while the Zhoushan site will have a tide farm with a 1 megawatt or more capacity and a test zone.