2024 – waves of change

The thing with waves at sea is they don’t come along on their own. They come in groups and their impact is a function of where you are, what you are doing and how prepared you are for them. Waves are also the result of some event at sea such as a storm or the accumulated energy from weather roughening up the water many miles away.

The same seems to apply to change. Several changes arriving in quick succession can knock the unwary or unprepared off their feet. Some may result from actions or decisions taken many miles away. But just like waves, change can be surfed and be exciting for those prepared.

Set up as a catalyst for innovation and R&D, we have become adept at reacting to change, be that in political circumstances and policies or changing market demands; for innovation such changes can represent huge opportunity. Innovation, like surfing, is hard but exciting. The projects we host are first-of-a-kind pilots and often unearth unexpected challenges and unknown issues. Tackling these with limited timescales and budgets creates extremely valuable learning and often new projects.

EMEC has played a key part in instigating the unprecedented marine energy activities that have taken place in Orkney over recent years; not only paving a way for the technologies of the future, but also supporting the development of the skills and supply chains that are needed to build them at scale.

Whilst 2024 has seen a marked shift in the political landscape, it was reassuring this year to have our work and impact recognised by both the outgoing and incoming governments. In May, we received a funding boost of £3 million from the UK Government to help unlock EMEC growth opportunities to help deliver UK net zero ambitions and there’s a strong message around the need to decarbonise coming from the new Labour government.

Within the first couple of months of the new government, we welcomed the new Climate Minister, Kerry McCarthy MP to Orkney, closely followed by a fact-finding visit by officials from the Department of Net Zero and Energy Security. The fact that they came here to see first-hand how clean offshore technologies and island-grown energy expertise can contribute to the Government’s clean power mission is refreshing and empowering.

Investment in R&D and emerging technologies will be key to allow the UK to achieve its 2030 targets and net zero and we’re well placed to support initiatives such as GB Energy and Clean Power 2030 Mission Control in the quest to accelerate renewable and low carbon technologies.

As 2024 comes to a close we wanted to take some time to reflect on progress being made and changes we expect to see over the coming years. The following summary outlines the breadth of activity we have been involved in as well as signposting more detailed information which I hope will be of interest.

Looking ahead, we know that 2025 is going to be a busy year and I saw for myself at the relaunch of the Marine Energy All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) in Westminster how much interest there is in what EMEC is doing. I was delighted to be present in the first meeting which brought together MPs and industry leaders, with Orkney and Shetland MP, Alistair Carmichael, as Chair, to discuss how to realise the UK’s marine energy potential. With clear interest at the highest level and the determination I see day to day up here in the centre of the industry, the newly created alignment of interests is palpable and exciting.

We are ready to surf the waves of change needed and I am grateful for all the years of preparation that colleagues have invested into getting us ready for the challenge. 2025 looks like it is going to be an exciting year… again.

Enjoy the read and feel free to get in touch.

Neil Kermode
Managing Director

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Ocean Energy

Ambitions and progress

The UK has strong ambitions for deploying wave and tidal energy because of the benefit it can bring. The UK’s wave and tidal energy technology lead offers energy security and economic benefit with more than 80% UK project content worth an estimated £41 billion GVA to the UK economy by 2050.

Our industry body, the Marine Energy Council (MEC), has clear industry asks of Government to cement the UK’s lead in tidal stream and wave energy:

• Introduce dedicated innovation funding for capturing energy security, economic and system benefits.
• Set 2035 deployment targets – 1 GW tidal stream deployment, and 300 MW for wave energy, by 2035.
• Maintain and create clear routes to market, including revenue support, investment in early array deployment sites and creating a strategic taskforce to realise the potential for ocean energy in the UK.

As one of the MEC’s lead partners, EMEC fully supports these asks and included them in our own manifesto asks during the general election. EMEC’s Corporate Affairs Director, Eileen Linklater, recently joined Richard Arnold from the MEC to reflect on UK policy developments in marine energy for a ReEnergise podcast, hosted by Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult.

The podcast discusses one of the most promising political announcements of the year – the results of Allocation Round 6 (AR6) of the UK’s Contracts for Difference renewable auction. Six projects across five sites secured contracts to deliver 28 MW of tidal stream energy adding to the pipeline of projects due to come online over the next few years. There is now over 130 MW of tidal stream projects due to become operational by 2029 in the UK; 83 MW of which are planned to be deployed in Scotland.

However to realise this, the sector needs to get technologies into the water for longer periods of testing and demonstration now, as well as readying sites for arrays to accelerate the progression from single prototype to multi device demonstrations over the coming decade.

A new report, published by EMEC alongside the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult, highlights the important role alternative offtake routes for tidal stream energy can play in enabling the sector’s development, particularly given existing grid constraints. Funded by Crown Estate Scotland, Scottish Enterprise, and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the report delves into several offtake routes including community embedded generation, power for local small-scale industrial demands such as whisky distilleries, hydrogen applications and the production of synthetic fuels. Key recommendations focus on strategic planning around best use of resources adjacent to industries in need of decarbonisation, reducing risk for community scale projects, and increasing thresholds for consenting requirements to better support projects at different scales. These insights aim to inform future leasing design and identify practical approaches to resolving deliverability constraints.

EMEC is also actively pursuing the expansion of both our grid-connected test sites to accommodate demonstrations of multiple technologies with work in progress to expand the tidal site at the Fall of Warness to 50 MW and the wave energy test site at Billia Croo as well.

Read on to find out about the pipeline of projects gearing up to deploy at our sites.

Tidal energy – progressing to arrays

Orbital continue to operate its O2 tidal turbine at EMEC’s Fall of Warness tidal energy site, with a recent generation record achieved for the most amount of power from a single six-hour tide clocking 8.63 MWh – enough power to meet the electricity demand for the average UK home for three years.

EMEC are working with Orbital on a number of European-funded innovation projects which will see a step change in the scale deployment of Orbital’s technology:

• MaxBlade is investigating the full lifecycle of tidal turbine blades to deliver essential blade and rotor innovations to increase blade length from 10 m to 13 m and create the world’s longest tidal turbine blade.
• FORWARD2030 is developing a multi-vector energy system combining predictable floating tidal energy, wind generation, grid export, battery storage and green hydrogen production.
• EURO-TIDES is focused on accelerating the commercial deployment of Orbital’s technology through deploying a 9.6 MW tidal turbine array at EMEC over the coming years.

Another Scottish tidal developer, Nova Innovation, has also been awarded EU funding in collaboration to scale up deployment of its seabed mounted tidal turbines. The SEASTAR project aims to deploy a 4 MW, 16 turbine, tidal energy farm at EMEC’s Fall of Warness tidal energy site.

Magallanes is working on the design of its ATIR 2.0 tidal energy device and we are looking forward to supporting them in demonstrating it at EMEC in the near future.

Wave energy – scaling up

On the wave energy front, Irish developer OceanEnergy has signed a berth agreement to test its 1 MW OE35 floating wave energy converter at EMEC’s Billia Croo wave energy site. The EU Horizon Europe funded WEDUSEA project will demonstrate the OE35 over a two-year period with demonstration at EMEC expected to begin in 2025/26.

Meanwhile, Edinburgh-based developer, Mocean Energy, which first demonstrated its scale Blue X prototype at our Scapa Flow test site in 2021 followed by a demonstration off the east coast of Orkney in 2023/24, is preparing to deploy a 250 kW wave machine at our Billia Croo wave test site in the near future as part of a £3 million EuropeWave project.

We’re also delighted to be working with one of our earliest wave energy clients again – AW Energy. The recently kicked off ONDEP project has been awarded €19 million from the EU’s Horizon Europe funding program to deploy a 2 MW wave energy array featuring four WaveRoller wave energy converters in Portugal. AW Energy tested components for the WaveRoller device at Billia Croo in 2005.

Lifecycle analysis – from deployment to decommissioning

This summer, the former OpenHydro tidal energy platform was decommissioned and removed from EMEC’s tidal site at the Fall of Warness after 18 years in situ. Installed in 2006, OpenHydro was EMEC’s first tidal client and in 2008, became the first device to generate tidal power to the UK grid. Over the years, OpenHydro tested seven turbines, with the final one accruing over 10,000 hours of run time. Unfortunately, the company went into administration in 2018 and having explored opportunities to repurpose the remaining platform, it was ultimately decided to progress with decommissioning. The turbine was removed in 2022 and EMEC worked in collaboration with local marine contractors Ocean Kinetics and Green Marine, who led the marine operation to remove the platform, cutting the pile foundations to the seabed.

EMEC’s environmental team carried out surveys on the platform’s piles to collect data on biofouling and corrosion impacts. This data is now with our partners at the University of Hull for analysis with a view to publishing results next year which will help inform industry.

Offshore and floating wind

With thousands of MW of floating wind due to be deployed in Scottish waters over the next 20 years, Orkney and EMEC is located at the epicentre of the ScotWind offshore wind lease areas. EMEC has an emerging R&D portfolio in this field, bringing over 20 years’ experience of supporting marine energy technology demonstrations to the sector.

Component and sub-system trials

EMEC specialises in facilitating at sea trials of marine technologies, primarily for wave and tidal energy, however we’re seeing increased demand from the offshore wind sector as well.
In October, Apollo tested its PALM (Pull and Lock Marine) Charger at EMEC’s Scapa Flow test site. The ‘plug and play’ charging point is designed to enable electric service vessels to recharge while operating offshore for extended periods, e.g. at offshore wind farms.

The trials were conducted in collaboration with Orkney-based Leask Marine and EMEC to demonstrate the technology in a real offshore environment. Apollo completed multiple connect, power and disconnect operations under a variety of sea conditions with high reliability of the mechanical and electrical connection. The tests provided key insights into the marine handling operations which will inform the next stage of development and support final design refinements. The project was supported by nearly £800,000 in funding from the UK Department for Transport through Innovate UK.

A national floating wind test centre

EMEC’s white paper outlining the need for a National Floating Wind Test Centre in the UK has been well received by industry. The paper compares 5-year average and 100-year storm event conditions at existing and proposed floating wind test sites across Europe with the metocean resources that project developers will face at typical ScotWind, INTOG, and Celtic Sea sites.

The analysis shows that existing European sites are insufficiently energetic to be truly representative of commercial floating wind projects in UK waters and highlights the need for the UK to establish its own dedicated floating wind test centre to adequately prove and de-risk floating wind technologies for project insurability and bankability. Download our national floating wind test site project information booklet for further details.

Innovation calls for offshore wind

We launched our flagship £1 million innovation competition for offshore wind at the end of 2023, alongside platinum sponsor, West of Orkney Windfarm. The Offshore Wind R&I Programme aims to support companies to explore ways to overcome specific technical challenges in offshore wind development, accelerating innovation in the sector while embedding economic benefits in Scotland.

The programme is searching for novel solutions to help deliver offshore wind faster, cheaper and at lower risk. A series of innovation calls will address different challenge areas facing the West of Orkney Windfarm spanning metocean, installation, logistics, and operations and maintenance (O&M).

We’ll have some exciting announcement around this early next year as we announce the winners of our first innovation call and the launch of our second innovation call.

EMEC is also exploring opportunities to broaden the remit of the programme, inviting project developers to sponsor the programme and/or innovation calls targeting specific technical, delivery or commercial challenges.

Integrating renewables into a clean energy system

As well as demonstrating and testing offshore renewable energy technologies, EMEC is exploring new technologies, energy vectors and storage solutions to maximise the use of renewables and best integrate them into the energy system of the future.

Hydrogen

EMEC operates a green hydrogen production and storage R&D facility onshore in Eday, adjacent to our Fall of Warness tidal test site. We are in the process of commissioning our new upgraded 670 kW electrolyser which we’re hoping to bring online in 2025; this has taken a lot longer than expected due to various challenges within the emerging hydrogen sector. Once the electrolyser is fully commissioned, it will be integrated with vanadium flow batteries in a world-first demonstration combining tidal power with battery storage and hydrogen production. This will ‘smooth’ tidal generation to create continuous, on-demand electricity to turn into hydrogen. With hydrogen widely promoted as a cornerstone of future decarbonisation strategies we have gained valuable learnings from our first mover experience and various hydrogen projects that we can share with others looking to incorporate hydrogen into renewable energy systems.

Our understanding of hydrogen’s role in the future energy landscape continues to evolve, as we focus more of our attention on hard-to-electrify sectors like industry, aviation and maritime. We increasingly see hydrogen’s potential as a building block for the creation of synthetic fuels, particularly within the Orkney context. Liquid-based e-fuels, synthesised from renewable hydrogen combined with non-fossil carbon, offer a major advantage — they can act as drop-in fuels, requiring little or no modification of the existing engine and refuelling infrastructure.

As e-fuels exist in a liquid state, they are also easier to store and transport than gaseous hydrogen. When burned, they release net-zero carbon emissions.

Our Managing Director, Neil Kermode, provided more insight into the opportunities of synthetic aviation fuel for Scotland’s energy transition at the Scottish Energy Forum.

We have fed our hydrogen knowledge and expertise into various R&D projects this year spanning production and end use, including:

• In January, we kicked off a project in collaboration with CATAGEN, Orkney Harbours and Belfast Harbour exploring the opportunity of bringing novel e-fuel production technology to market to help decarbonise the UK’s maritime activities. Funded by the Department of Transport, the project is preparing a techno-economic feasibility study, with EMEC feeding experience and learnings from previous maritime projects, exploring the benefits and challenges of synthetic fuels and its applicability in Orkney.
• Project Verdant, a preliminary design and feasibility study exploring the integration of a hydrogen fuel cell system onto an offshore wind crew transfer vessel (CTV) operated by Green Marine. EMEC provided insight on refuelling logistics, safety protocols, and training requirements while conducting detailed economic modelling for the retrofitted hydrogen CTV.
• HySKUA, a feasibility study exploring the viability of offshore hydrogen production integrated with offshore wind.
• HyBrine, a study looking at the feasibility of seawater electrolysis technology to capture hydrogen and carbon dioxide from seawater. The study focusses on how this technology may be applied to the production of e-fuels.
• Working with Intelligent Plant, a study developing a decision support system using explainable artificial intelligence to support operational efficiency and apply to hydrogen safety.
• Off-grid Green Hydrogen Production Demonstration, a feasibility study in collaboration with Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult. We delivered hydrogen knowledge exchange workshops and a report to feed into the development of a possible demonstration.

Islands decarbonisation 

EMEC is leading the Islands Centre for Net Zero (ICNZ), a ten-year programme supporting Orkney, Shetland and the Outer Hebrides to become lighthouse communities in the energy transition. It is exploring and trialing solutions to decarbonise that have replicability and application worldwide. The programme is funded by the UK and Scottish Governments as part of the Islands Growth Deal. Since being established, ICNZ team has held various workshops and public engagement events across the islands, and attended Shetland’s Climate Festival and the Orkney agricultural shows, speaking with community groups to understand their concerns and priorities related to energy and decarbonisation.

Through discussions with partners and stakeholders eight project areas have been prioritised initially including peatland restoration and removal of blockers to smart meter rollout across the three island groups. More localised projects are looking at domestic decarbonisation, waste reduction and circular economy, hydrogen skills and innovation, agriculture and sustainable farming, a digital energy heritage trail and the Island Games 2025.

The team have also been supporting:

• The Community Energy Scotland led Island Community Action Network (iCAN) which meets online monthly for themed presentations and discussion on decarbonisation and climate activities. Meetings have looked at community transport, local waste reduction, the Rural Energy Hubs project and community climate action planning with the Carbon Neutral Islands project.
• ICNZ project partners Aquatera with developing a data exchange and carbon calculation tool to address the lack of accurate island specific data for understanding, benchmarking and tracking carbon usage.
• The IsleAI project to create a platform to help identify areas affected by fuel poverty.
• Rural Energy Hubs which is developing the Brae Rural Energy Hub in Shetland, due to open in summer 2025, to provide information and practical solutions to inspire and support communities to reduce carbon emissions and energy costs. The warm centre includes an innovative mix of co-working spaces, a café, rapid charging facilities, a car club and e-bike hire.
• Two new Innovate UK funded projects – Electric Orkney and SeaChange – are exploring decarbonisation and electrification solutions in maritime.

If you’d like to learn more about Orkney’s path to a new zero future, Neil Kermode of EMEC and Dr Gareth Davies of Aquatera hosted the inaugural Pete Oswald memorial lecture at the 2024 Orkney International Science Festival delving into Orkney’s decarbonisation journey for the next 5-10 years for. Green and Blue Horizons is available to watch on YouTube.

Engagement and impact

EMEC started the year having won the Outstanding Service Award at the Scottish Green Energy Awards 2023 and being awarded Independent Research Organisation (IRO) status. Both are testament to the hard work and diligence shown by our staff over the last 20 years and EMEC’s added value in applied industrial research. Receiving IRO status makes us eligible to compete for research grant funding from the UK’s seven research councils and thus opens new opportunities to collaborate with universities and other research institutions. Please do reach out if you would like to work together on projects that drive decarbonisation.

Connecting with colleagues in industry, academia and government is key to building partnerships and sharing knowledge to help progress innovation and renewables in the UK. Highlights this year include exhibiting alongside the Orkney supply chain at All-Energy in Glasgow, and the more recent Ocean Energy Europe conference in Aviemore. Special thanks to Dr Alasdair Allan MSP, Scottish Minister for Climate Action for popping past for a chat. We presented alongside Crown Estate Scotland to share insight from the aforementioned tidal offtake report, and supported our MaRINERGi project partners with a workshop looking at integrating offshore renewable energy testing across Europe.

We also co-hosted an International WaTERS consenting workshop with FORCE prior to the Marine Renewables Canada conference in Nova Scotia. Delegates toured the FORCE test site at the Bay of Fundy followed by a workshop delving into consenting and regulatory challenges and opportunities.

Closer to home, a highlight of our year is always the Orkney International Science Festival, where our annual open day at our Billia Croo wave test site attracted over 60 locals and tourists to the site on a beautiful but windy September day. The following day we set up at the Family Day in Kirkwall to have a chat with the researchers and engineers of the future. Engaging with young people on green career paths and opportunities in a net zero future is vital to ensure we have the skills in place as the renewables sector builds out, and on that note we have also attended local careers fairs, been engaging with our local STEM ambassador to support local teachers, and we hosted our renewables revolution open day during Shopping Week attracting over 150 kids (and parents) to the Orkney Research and Innovation Centre.

We continue to support local events having sponsored events like the Orkney Amateur Swimming Club Gala, Eday Show and the Orkney Folk Festival, with many of our team volunteering during the festival, as well as supporting local projects, including the Eday Heritage Centre.

Visitors to EMEC this year have included students, researchers and project partners from around the globe, as well visits from regulatory bodies, Government officials and our new Climate Minister. Aware that it’s not always possible for folk to travel to Orkney, we have also launched a new virtual tour of our sites, in collaboration with Scottish Renewables. The Renewables 360 project brings key Scottish renewable energy projects onto Google Street View, where you can now virtually walk through the onshore facilities at EMEC’s wave and tidal energy test sites as well as Orbital Marine Power’s O2 device demonstrating at the Fall of Warness.

Showcasing Orkney energy innovation further afield, we were delighted to team up with the Science Museum for their major new gallery, Energy Revolution, The Adani Green Energy Gallery which opened to the public in earlier this year. The gallery focusses on the past, present and future energy systems, with a highlight attraction being a seven metre long tidal turbine blade made by Orbital Marine Power. Used on the SR2000, a 63 metre long, 500 tonne tidal turbine deployed at EMEC’s test site from 2016-18, this prototype blade helped generate enough electricity to power a thousand homes harnessing the strong tidal flows around Orkney.

The development of EMEC – the world’s first and leading test centre for marine energy – has had a significant impact in Orkney as well as across the UK economy in terms of employment, supply chain development and encouraging public and private investment to service the sector. The economic impact assessment found that the creation of EMEC, and subsequent activities that have burgeoned since, has amounted to £370 million gross value add (GVA) to the UK economy. £263 million of that was accrued in Scotland; and half of that, £130 million, in the Orkney Islands where EMEC is head quartered.

And finally….

Congratulations to Neil Kermode OBE, who was awarded the Outstanding Contribution Award at the Subsea Expo Awards 2024, having dedicated his career to combatting climate change, identifying, innovating and trialling solutions that can reduce carbon emissions and driving the global development of the marine renewable energy sector.

Wishing our community, clients, project partners, suppliers, funders, and supporters from around the world a very merry Christmas and a happy and healthy 2025!