The European Marine Energy Centre SPOTLIGHT ON ORKNEY & THE PENTLAND FIRTH
Even on an otherwise calm summer’s day, the Fall of Warness in Orkney is in constant motion. It surges, boils and swirls, its restlessness the result of seabed topography that squeezes the ocean between the islands of Eday and Muckle Green Holm into a fiercesome eight-knot tidal race.
TEST BERTHS
Invisible from the surface are test berths suitable for testing tidal energy generators. Each berth is connected to the national grid via subsea cables and a substation on the nearby island of Eday. This tidal test site is operated by The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC): the world’s leading testing facility for wave and tidal energy converters.
BILLIA CROO
A similar facility for testing wave energy generators exists at Billia Croo, on the west coast of the Orkney mainland. Open to the full force of the Atlantic Ocean, with waves as high as 19 metres recorded, the test site has some of the highest wave energy potential in Europe.
Spend half an hour rocking and rolling in a boat over the Fall of Warness, or stand onshore at Billia Croo during the full force of a winter storm, and it’s blatantly obvious why Orkney was chosen as the location for a marine energy test centre. If devices can operate here, and survive the monumentally harsh conditions, they should work anywhere in the world.
UNRIVALLED LEVELS OF ACTIVITY Now, ten years after EMEC was established in a public sector leap of faith involving Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Scottish Enterprise, the Scottish and UK governments, Orkney Islands Council, the European Union and the Carbon Trust, Orkney is witnessing unrivalled levels of marine energy activity, with more devices being tested in the islands than at any other location on the planet.
ACCREDITED WAVE AND TIDAL TEST CENTRE – A GLOBAL FIRST Based in the town of Stromness on Orkney’s west mainland, EMEC is the only accredited wave and tidal test centre for marine renewable energy in the world, suitable for testing a number of full-scale wave and tidal devices simultaneously while producing electricity to the national grid through the company’s infrastructure. Operating to relevant test laboratory standards (ISO17025), the Centre provides independently verified performance reports to its clients.
EASING THE PATH TO MARKET In addition to its full-scale test berths, EMEC has worked hard to ease the path to market for marine renewable developers by building two scale test sites.
These facilities allow developers to test smaller scale devices, techniques and components in less challenging conditions than those found at the full-scale test sites, closing the gap between testing in a wave or tidal tank and bringing full scale prototypes to trial in real sea conditions.
CONSULTANCY AND RESEARCH Beyond device testing, the 25-strong team at EMEC provide a range of consultancy and research services and are at the forefront in the development of international standards for marine energy.
With their expertise much in demand from emerging test sites around the world, the Centre set up a global ocean energy symposium in 2013 to create a network of real-sea test and demonstration facilities, having already forged alliances with various countries around the world including Canada, China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and the USA.
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www.wavetidalenergynetwork.co.uk
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