Danny Alexander, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, visited Pelamis Wave Power’s manufacturing facility and office headquarters in Leith, Edinburgh, today. The MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey was given a tour of PWP’s facilities by founder and Chief Technical Officer, Richard Yemm.
Danny Alexander spent over an hour touring PWP’s fabrication and assembly hall where the second P2 Pelamis machine on order from ScottishPower Renewables is being built. Speaking afterwards, he remarked: “It is fantastic to see this example of Scottish enterprise and engineering accomplishing key milestones towards the commercialisation of such an important industry. Wave power is a huge renewable and abundant resource in the UK and the Pelamis technology provides the ability to capture that resource in an economical and environmentally benign way. Further application of this technology would reduce the UK’s dependence on fossil fuels, generate jobs and opportunities in Scotland, and demonstrate economic advantages across the UK.”
Richard Yemm, CTO of Pelamis Wave Power, commented: “It is very positive for us to see such interest from the Government in understanding the marine energy sector and our work at PWP. If marine power is to reach its potential as a low-cost, low-carbon energy supply, communication between government and industry will be vital. Today’s visit was a valuable opportunity to discuss the importance of furthering the UK’s renewable energy industry.”
PWP are currently manufacturing the P2 Pelamis machine for energy utility, ScottishPower Renewables, the second utility to order a Pelamis machine in the UK. The Pelamis P2 machine is the second generation Pelamis wave energy converter. The first machine, purchased by E.ON was successfully connected to the grid for the first time in October this year (2010) and is now undergoing a staged programme of testing. Earlier this month E.ON and ScottishPower announced a groundbreaking collaboration in the trialling of their respective P2 devices. The two companies are developing 100MW of Pelamis projects off the coast of Orkney and will use the information gathered from these trials to underpin larger commercial projects such as these.