EquiMar

In case you missed it...EquiMar project features in Scottish Natural Heritage publication

In the Scottish Natural Heritage magazine "The Nature of Scotland", EquiMar partner Lesley Riddoch describes the current status of sonar developments as it relates to marine energy. Written for the general public, the article, which you can download here , also includes quotes from a variety of EquiMar partners.

Another major EquiMar Deliverable is now available

We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the Deliverable 9.1 ; this report aims to draw up the current state of ocean energy in Europe by enumerating the different technologies, test sites, and joint projects that exist today and that are projected for the near future. You can download EquiMar Deliverable 9.1 here.

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.”

Servicing a tidal stream device

For many people, the idea of servicing and maintaining a tidal stream device is a gap in their knowledge. Yet, in many ways, it is an important topic which will need to be addressed before all forms of marine energy go 'mainstream'. In this short video, two EquiMar partners explain some of the challenges.

Brian Holmes HMRC...an apology

Since the original interview with Brian Holmes of HMRC was posted, there seems to have been a problem with the video; resulting in sound but no picture. This has now been fixed and you can SEE and hear Brian talking about the EquiMar protocols and their relevance to developers. 

Deliverables are now available here

Part of the EquiMar project's mission is to communicate the protocols developed by the partners. To help achieve this communication, the EquiMar project deliverables are now available via this website. You can access these written material by clicking on 'EquiMar project deliverables' either at the top of this page or in the sidebar.

Dates for your diary - October 2009

After their successful presentation at EWTEC in Uppsala in September, representatives of Wave Energy Centre will  be on stage again at the InWaterTec conference , that is going to be held in Kiel, Germany in the beginning of October (6th to 8th).
Water Energy Centre, who are Equimar partners, will be presenting a paper; “Review and discussion of common environmental legislation for ocean energy schemes”. This paper is based on the results and first deliverable of Work Package 6 (D6.1.1) entitled   “Existing legislation, perspectives and evolution of other similar activities".

Are seals safe with tidal turbines ?

This feature article which is downloadable here appeared in Engineering and Technology magazine -- the most widely read and respected magazine in its field. E&T has established an enviable reputation for the global breadth and quality of its content, published bi-weekly 21 times a year and read by over 150,000 professional engineers and technologists worldwide; working and operating in all disciplines of engineering including communications, control and automation, electronics, IT, management, manufacturing and power.

The aim was to spell out the difficulties of putting a tidal turbine in the water and measuring its impact on marine mammals. The public often wonders why tidal and wave energy isn’t advancing faster – resolving environmental concerns about seals, dolphins, sea birds and fish is clearly going to take time.

Progress for EquiMar Partners

Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy visited the Pelamis Wave Power headquarters in Leith (July 16th) to announce an £8 million boost from the UK government for marine energy. The funding will help expand the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney, where Pelamis achieved a world first by generating electricity for the national grid. (Pelamis and EMEC are both partners in the Equimar project)

Pelamis is now working on the next generation of its unique wave-power generators for Orkney next year. Mr Murphy said work at Pelamis, on the Forth estuary, will inspire advances in renewable technology. Meanwhile the Scotsman newspaper suggested the lion’s share of the marine development cash should have come to Scotland not Cornwall. See here......

Upcoming events

WavEC will present a paper on “Discussion of common environmental legislation baselines for ocean energy schemes” based on the results for WP6 first deliverable (D6.1.1 “Existing legislation, perspectives and evolution of other similar activities”)

This will take place on 7th to 10th September 2009 at the EWTEC Conference in Uppsala Sweden.