Scottish Scientists leading EU marine research back Pentland Firth Wave and Tidal Leasing Round

The Scottish scientists behind Europe’s largest marine energy research programme, EquiMar have welcomed today’s announcement of the successful bidders in the world’s first commercial wave and tidal leasing round in Pentland Firth and Orkney waters. Professor David Ingram is the Edinburgh based co-coordinator of the European Commission funded EquiMar project, a £4 million Scottish-based programme linking European research centres to examine the potential of marine energy. The project has been given three years by the European Commission to come up with guidelines to match wave and tidal energy devices to locations so marine energy can be developed commercially in time to meet ambitious targets for renewable energy.

The 1.2GW of installed capacity proposed by today’s wave and tidal energy developers is four times the peak output of Dounreay power station. According to the Scottish Government this is enough electricity to meet the needs of up to three quarters of a million homes. Professor Ingram of the Institute for Energy Systems at Edinburgh University said; "This is a very welcome announcement, leasing ten areas of the sea around Orkney and the Pentland Firth for Marine Energy Development. The important thing – if SSE, EON and Scottish Power are to achieve their ambitious targets – is to match the technology to the particular character of each site. Scottish scientists and marine biologists are heavily involved in producing industry guidelines to allow each marine energy generating device to be compared and assessed for its suitability in different sea conditions. The EquiMar project will provide tools that should help the Pentland Firth developers and aid investment decisions. It’s great to finally see the commercial exploitation of Scotland’s marine resource by technologies which started life in Edinburgh and Belfast University laboratories (PWP's Pelamis and Aquamarine's Oyster). "

Cameron Johnstone Director of Strathclyde University's Energy Systems Research Unit and a co-Director of the EquiMar team said; “The announcement’s a welcome move to advance the commercial development of marine renewables in Scotland. I would hope the limited number of awards made today to a relatively small number of parties is just the start of the opening up of seas around Scotland and the process doesn’t stall. Otherwise, it could lead to a monopolisation of technology commercialisation by the successful parties and present a barrier to the next generation of technologies which are rapidly progressing towards commercial deployment.”