The drive to put Scotland at the forefront of global marine energy development took a major step forward today with the awarding of significant grant support to companies pursuing innovative wave and tidal projects.
Deputy First Minister Nicol Stephen revealed details of the nine projects – including Pelamis – to receive a share of more than £13 million grant support for marine energy projects in Scottish waters. The initial fund of £8 million has been increased by a further £5.15 million to meet demand for the grants.
The funding will be supplemented by an additional £500,000 to develop a testing berth at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney.
This came on the day that Ministers also confirmed that the Scottish Executive has reached its target to have 18 per cent of Scotland’s electricity generated from renewable sources a full five years ahead of schedule
Nicol Stephen said:
“Today marks a vital milestone in Scotland’s drive to be the world leader in the development of marine renewables.
“Last October I announced that £8 million would be available for companies to develop marine energy project in Scottish waters.
“I am delighted to announce the nine successful bidders today. I am also very pleased to confirm that we are able to fund an additional £5 million worth of projects: £13 million of new investment in world-class wave and tidal projects here in Scotland.
“There are some real Scottish success stories amongst the grant recipients. ScotRenewables is a small and very young company based in Orkney. There is a major Pelamis project involving four machines, which I hope will proceed before the end of 2008. This will be the world’s biggest commercial wave project – significantly bigger than the major Portuguese scheme.
“The increase in the value of the fund is a mark of the importance we give to marine energy developments. Scotland has the potential to generate a quarter of Europe’s marine energy and kick-starting the sector is vital if we are to create a significant industry based in Scotland and meet our long-term renewables targets.”
On the issue of targets, Mr Stephen was also able to confirm a major milestone in Scotland’s renewable energy production. He said:
“We have already made huge strides forward in renewable energy. I am delighted to be able to confirm today that our first target on renewable generation – 18 per cent by 2010 – has now been met, years ahead of schedule.
“This is a proud moment for the industry in Scotland as we continue our progress to being Europe’s renewable energy powerhouse.”
NOTES TO NEWS EDITORS
1. Successful bidders for a share of the Marine Energy Fund are as follows:
CRE Energy Ltd* £4.141 million
AWS Ocean Energy £2.128 million
ScotRenewables £1.796 million
Open Hydro £1.214 million
Ocean Power Technology £0.598 million
Aquamarine £0.275 million
CleanTechCom £0.273 million
Wavegen £0.149 million
Tidal Generation £0.077 million
(* subsidiary of ScottishPower)
An additional £2.5 million has been ring fenced for upgrading the site at the European Marine Energy Centre to help accommodate these devices. The strengthening of EMEC’s infrastructure will ensure the facilities are up to date and capable of handling a range of device types.
CRE/Scottish Power: this project will use four of Ocean Power Delivery’s Pelamis devices arranged as a single wave energy array. Each device will be rated at 750kW giving a total array of output of 3MW.
AWS Ocean Energy’s project involves the design, construction, installation, testing and demonstration of a 500kW Archimedes Wave Swing (“AWS”) wave energy converter at the European Wave Energy Centre.
ScotRenewables: the SRTT is floating tidal stream energy converter. The concept involves dual horizontal-axis rotors driving generators within sub-surface nacelles.
Open Hydro: A 275kW open centre turbine will be installed at EMEC’s tidal site.
Ocean Power Technology will use the PowerBuoy wave power device. The PowerBuoy is a buoy acting as a point absorber which moves up and down a central ‘spar’ as the wave passes by.
Aquamarine’s Oyster devices are designed to exploit the wave resource in near-shore locations. The near-shore environment is considered to be an optimal location for a device as the waves retain significant power compared to an offshore location but the damaging extreme waves are limited by water depth. This location is considered to reduce the capital and operating costs and hence maximise economic efficiency.
Wavegen’s technology is the Oscillating Water Column (OWC). This project will comprise the development and testing of an advanced Wells turbine system which is expected to be utilized on a wave energy project on the Western Isles, at Siadar, which is currently being developed with npower renewables. This project will use Wavegen’s existing OWC at the Limpet site, near Portnahaven on the island of Islay.
Cleantechcom: this project will consist of two 1m diameter siphon pipes which pass through the No 1 Churchill Barrier on land at the Northern tip of Lamb Holm island on Orkney.
Tidal Generation: This project will fund the extraction of a core sample of seabed from the berth area Tidal Generation’s machine will occupy.
2. The bulk of the successful projects will take place in and around the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney, with the installation of small arrays / single devices at the wave and tidal test facilities there. Devices are expected in the water this year, with full commissioning during 2008. Part of the fund will be used to upgrade site works and infrastructure at EMEC to accommodate the increase in activity.
3. News that the Scottish Executive’s 2010 target for renewable generation has been exceeded came with publication of “Energy Trends: December 2006” by the Department of Trade and Industry (available here). The report shows that electricity consumed in Scotland during 2005 totalled 35,629 GWh (GigaWatt hours), and that in the same year, renewable electricity generated in Scotland reached 6,488 GWh, or 18.2% of the total.
4. The additional resources for the Marine Energy Fund have been made available from extra central resources for 2006/07 and 2007/08. The £500,000 for EMEC comes from £13,415,000 given to Highlands and Islands Enterprise, also from extra central resources.
Contact:
Stuart Lewis:
0131 244 2682 / 07796 335881
Internet: www.scotland.gov.uk