Scottish Wave and Tidal Energy Deal Announced

A landmark deal has been struck up in the UK through which multiple sites off Scotland will be leased out to allow renewable energy technologies to be built within them. Ten specific locations will be harnessed as sites of wave and tidal energy production, and seven companies will be involved.

In alphabetical order, these companies are Aquamarine Power, E.ON, Marine Current Turbines, OpenHydro Site Development, Pelamis Wave Power, ScottishPower Renewables and SSE Renewables Developments.

Together, these firms plan to produce sufficient power over the coming decade to be able to electrify 750,000 houses – 1.2 GW (Gigawatts) of it.

Alex Salmond – the First Minister of Scotland – said the news represented a “major milestone.”

“These waters have been described as the Saudi Arabia of marine power and the wave and tidal projects unveiled today - exceeding the initial 700MW target capacity - underline the rich natural resources of the waters off Scotland”, Mr Salmond said.

Of the ten sites, four will focus on tidal energy production and six on wave energy production. The tidal energy production sites are in Orkney and Caithness, while the wave energy production sites are also in Orkney and in Sutherland. Specifically, the companies involved and the participating locations are as follows:

Scottish Wave Power

• SSE Renewables Developments will develop a wave power site at Costa Head (Orkney)
• SSE Renewable Developments and Aquamarine Power will develop a wave power site at Brough Head (Orkney)
• ScottishPower Renewables will work on a wave power site at Marwick Head (Orkney)
• E.ON will work on wave power sites located in West Orkney Middle South and West Orkney South
• Pelamis Wave Power will develop a wave power site at Armadale (Sutherland)

Scottish Tidal Power

• SSE Renewables Developments will develop a tidal power site at Westray South (Orkney)
• SSE Renewable Developments and OpenHydro Site Development will create a tidal power site at Cantick Head (Orkney)
• Marine Current Turbines will work on a tidal power site at Brough Ness (Orkney)
• ScottishPower will develop tidal power technology at Pentland Firth (Caithness)

"Wave and tidal power represent an energy and jobs bonanza for Scotland”, Doctor Richard Dixon representing WWF Scotland added.

“There is a massive amount of power in the seas around Scotland and we are currently the world leaders in developing the technologies to turn that potential into clean, green electricity.”

One of the companies included in the new scheme is wave energy firm Aquamarine Power, whose Oyster hydro-electric technology formed the basis of a previous Enviro-News News item. According to information provided by the company to Enviro News, the terms of the SSE Renewable Developments and Aquamarine Power wave energy tie-up give the two firms exclusive rights to develop and start using a whole array of Oysters off the Scottish coast, with their planned activation taking place in 2013.

“Harnessing the power of the sea to produce clean energy will play a crucial role in our future energy security and in meeting the UK’s climate change objectives”, Aquamarine’s CEO, Martin McAdam, stated in a company press release. “Deploying Oyster on a commercial scale has the potential to generate millions of pounds for the Scottish and UK economy and to create hundreds of jobs on a local and national level.”

Oyster image kindly provided by and copyright of Aquamarine Power