News this week
BWEA’s seventh annual event dedicated to wave and tidal energy took place on 4 March at the QEII Centre in Westminster, London. Over 500 government and industry professionals attended, including Neil Kermode, Richard Morris and Eileen Linklater from EMEC. Neil also took part in one of the highlights of the event – a panel debate chaired by Stephen Sackur, journalist and presenter on what impact the Marine Action Plan will bring to the industry.
Pictured above are the panel – (from left) Amaan Lafayette, EON; Sian McGrath, Aquamarine Power; Andrew Mill, NaREC; Stephen Sackur; Trevor Raggatt, DECC; Neil Kermode, EMEC; and Henry Jeffery, University of Edinburgh.
David MacKay, Chief Scientific Advisor to the Department of Energy and Climate Change and author of the influential book ‘Sustainable Energy – without the hot air’ was in Orkney last week to visit EMEC. The Chief Scientific Advisor’s role is to ensure that the Department’s policies and operations, and its contributions to wider Government issues, are underpinned by the best science and engineering advice available. To help with this, David Mackay made EMEC his first stop to see progress in wave and tidal energy whilst visiting Scotland. Whilst in Orkney, he gave a well attended public talk on his book where he explained that the public debate about our energy crisis will be a waste of time – unless we start using numbers we all understand. View this book for free online.
EMEC was also visited recently by Prof. Segen Farid Estefen. Prof. Segen is Brazil’s leading expert on Marine Energy and co-author of the Marine Energy section of the IPCC’s (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report on Renewable Energy. He also co-ordinates the Ocean Technology Lab at the University of Rio de Janeiro so was very interested to see EMEC and activity on both test sites.
Other EMEC staff out and about included John Lawrence, EMEC Hydrodynamicist, who attended the Oceanology International exhibition in London this week to meet technology developers, and Eileen Linklater, Client and Marekting Manager who spoke on marine renewables at the Orkney Agricultural Discussion Group alongside Councillor Ian Johnstone.
A programme about EMEC was broadcast on French radio this week. Anne-Claire Danel, reporter from RTL France visited EMEC and French speakers can listen to the results here.
Finally, EMEC is currently recruiting 3 posts – Research Director, Research and Consents Assistant and Data Technician. Click here for more information and closing dates.
