ORKNEY & THE PENTLAND FIRTH SPOTLIGHT ON
Ten years on from EMEC’s creation, there’s a palpable buzz around the marine energy sector in Orkney, with a sense that significant progress is now, finally, being made with EMEC attracting developers from around the globe to prove what is achievable in some of the harshest marine environments.
CURRENT PROJECTS
At EMEC’s wave test site, Pelamis Wave Power and ScottishPower Renewables continue to test their P2 machines – descendants of the world’s first offshore wave energy converter to generate electricity to a national grid back in 2004. Finnish Wello Oy and Edinburgh based Aquamarine Power are also racking up experience in testing their devices in Billia Croo’s relentless waves.
At the Fall of Warness, OpenHydro, an Irish tidal developer, became the first to feed tidal energy into the UK grid in 2008, and are now testing their 7th generation turbine at EMEC. French developer Alstom has recently deployed their second generation 1MW turbine at the test site, alongside Austrian/Norwegian developer ANDRITZ Hydro Hammerfest and Orkney-based Scotrenewables who are well underway in testing prototype tidal energy devices since trials began in 2011.
New on the scene is Voith from Germany who are working on installing their tidal turbine in 2014.
OPPORTUNITIES
Whilst an incredible critical mass of activity is already taking place in and around the EMEC test sites, the Centre is by no means full. Test berths are available at both the smaller scale and full scale test sites, so there are always opportunities for new organisations to join EMEC’s testing and research activities – fundamentally ‘learning by doing’. Learning which extends from installation methods to electrical connections via marine safety and component testing – for any offshore engineering there is no substitute for real sea experience, and still many solutions to be found.
EMBRACING THE MARINE ENERGY SECTOR
With four wave and five tidal full-scale devices currently in Orkney there is more marine energy activity here than at any other location on the planet. It’s no surprise then to find the entrepreneurially minded and resourceful Orcadian community embracing the marine energy sector, with a host of local support services springing up to support the burgeoning industry. Recent estimates put the number of marine renewables related jobs in the island at 250, in sectors ranging from manufacturing to consultancy.
INVESTMENT
Significant infrastructure investments have also been made with Orkney Islands Council nearing completion of a major harbours development programme to support marine renewables. The scheme has seen the creation of Scotland’s longest deep-water berth at Hatston, near Kirkwall, and the expansion of harbour facilities at Lyness on the island of Hoy. Work is also well underway on a new pier at Copland’s Dock in Stromness, aimed squarely at developers using EMEC’s Billia Croo wave test site.
Given this unprecedented activity, Orkney truly is the home of marine renewable energy.
The European Marine Energy Centre
www.wavetidalenergynetwork.co.uk
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