Our history

Our history

Year
Key events
2001Recommendation made by the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee to set up a wave and tidal energy test facility to kick start a marine energy industry in the UK
2003EMEC established
2004Wave test site at Billia Croo opened
2004Billia Croo: Pelamis 750 began testing and became the world’s first floating wave energy device to generate electricity to the national grid
2004EMEC initiated development of industry standards
2005Billia Croo: AW Energy undertook mechanical testing in the shallower waters at the Billia Croo wave test site
2005UKAS (United Kingdom Accreditation Service) accreditation obtained
2005Fall of Warness: Land-based surface-visible wildlife observations programme began
2006Tidal test site at Fall of Warness opened
2007Awards: EMEC won the ‘Commitment to Research and Development Award’ at the Northern Star Business Awards
2008Fall of Warness: Open Hydro became the first tidal turbine to generate electricity to the grid in the UK
2008Fall of Warness: Acoustic baseline equipment and methodology developed for the Fall of Warness
2009Billia Croo: Aquamarine Power launched their near shore ‘Oyster’ device, which was the world’s largest working hydro-electric wave energy device
2009Billia Croo: Land-based surface-visible wildlife observations programme at Billia Croo began
2010EMEC expanded its wave and tidal test sites, installing three new cables and fitting bespoke cable-end terminations to existing cables
2010Billia Croo: E.ON deployed the first second-generation Pelamis device – the P2-001
2010Fall of Warness: Tidal Generation Ltd (TGL) began generating to the grid from their 500kW DeepGen tidal turbine & Atlantis Resources Corporation installed their AK-1000 tidal turbine, subsequently replaced by the AR-1000
2010Billia Croo: Fisheries project established to investigate the possible effects of marine energy converter deployments on resident crustacean species at Billia Croo
2010Billia Croo: Acoustic baseline methodology and characterisation initiated at Billia Croo
2010Awards: EMEC, alongside Global Marine, J+S, and Draka, was awarded Most Effective Tidal Energy Project Development of the Year at the International Tidal Today Awards
2011New wave and tidal test sites opened at Scapa Flow and Shapinsay Sound for smaller scale test and demonstration activities
2011Billia Croo: Aquamarine Power installed their second generation Oyster 800 wave energy converter
2011Fall of Warness: ANDRITZ HYDRO Hammerfest installed their HS1000 tidal energy converter and Scotrenewables Tidal Power Ltd deployed their SR250 floating tidal turbine for the first time.
2011Shapinsay Sound: Flumill became the first developer to deploy at the newly opened tidal test site for smaller scale developers
2011Collaboration: Strategic alliances formed with Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy (FORCE), Canada and the Ocean University of China (OUC).
2011Collaboration: EMEC began a collaborative project working with 26 wave, tide and wind testing facilities around Europe in the Marine Renewables Infrastructure Network (MARINET) project
2011Awards: EMEC won the ‘Outstanding Contribution to the Scottish Environment’ award at the Scottish Green Awards
2012Collaboration: EMEC announced collaboration agreements with Japan , South Korea, USA, and Taiwan to support the development of marine energy test facilities across the world
2012Billia Croo: Wello Oy deployed their Penguin device on site for the first time; ScottishPower Renewables deployed its Pelamis P2-002 device on an adjacent berth to E.ON; and Seatricity began installation of their 'Oceanus' wave energy converter from their manufacturing base in Stromness
2012Fall of Warness: Alstom (formerly TGL) began work to replace its 500kW device with its 1MW 'DeepGen' tidal turbine
2012Scapa Flow: Nottingham University deployed its Energy Bag at the smaller scale wave test site
2012Fall of Warness: Integrated Marine Energy Measurement Platform, designed by EMEC, installed at the Fall of Warness
2012Awards: EMEC was awarded various accolades through the year include the ICE President’s Award for Energy Infrastructure at the British Construction Industry Awards, the Flagship Project of the Year at the British Renewable Energy Awards, and Best Renewable Energy (Offshore) Award at the Energy North ceremony.
2013EMEC celebrated its tenth anniversary, with a variety of events throughout the year.
2013Collaboration: EMEC hosted a Global Ocean Energy Symposium for marine energy test facilities in Orkney showcasing the world-leading work that is taking place at EMEC. This lead to the establishment of the International WaTERS (Wave and Tidal Energy Research Sites) Network.
2013Fall of Warness: Voith deployed their Hy-Tide 1MW turbine
2013Shapinsay Sound: EMEC welcomed Nautricity to Orkney with their CoRMaT tidal turbine
2013Collaboration: EMEC announced a collaboration agreement in Singapore to support the development of a scale testing facility in the country.
2013Awards: EMEC’s Neil Kermode awarded ‘Outstanding Contribution’ award at the Scottish Green Energy Awards.
2014Shapinsay Sound: Magallanes, a Spanish developer, deployed its 1:10 scale 'ATIR' floating turbine at EMEC’s Shapinsay Sound test site
2014EMEC attained the International Standard ISO/IEC 17020 for verification of new environmental technologies to help bring new low-carbon technologies to market
2014Whitford begin testing high-performance coatings within the harsh oceanic conditions in Orkney to assess their suitability for applications within the marine renewables industry
2014Collaboration: EMEC and the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy (FORCE) co-host 2nd International WaTERS (Wave and Tidal Energy Research Sites) network workshop in Halifax, Canada
2015Fall of Warness: EMEC Integrated Monitoring Pod at the Fall of Warness tidal test site in June, enabling real-time 24/7 data feeds to EMEC, and the developers testing on site.
2015Hydrogen: EMEC procured an electrolyser to convert power generated at EMEC's Fall of Warness tidal test site to hydrogen fuel to overcome local grid constraints.
2016Fall of Warness: Scotrenewables' SR2000 - the world's biggest and most powerful tidal turbine - arrived in Orkney in June, and was first installed at the Fall of Warness tidal test site in October.
2016Fall of Warness: Sustainable Marine Energy's (SME) PLAT-O arrived in Orkney and began wet-testing; SME subsea rock anchors installed at the Fall of Warness test site.
2016Collaboration: EMEC launch €11m FORESEA project bringing together Europe’s leading ocean energy test facilities to help demonstration of tidal, wave and offshore wind energy technologies in real-sea conditions. The project is funded by the Interreg NWE (North-West Europe) programm.
2016Collaboration: EMEC hosts third International WaTERS (Wave and Tidal Energy Research Sites) workshop in Edinburgh with nine countries represented.
2016Awards: EMEC named ‘Blue Economy Business of the Year’ at the European Commission’s Blue Economy Business Awards 2016.
2017Billia Croo: Wello Oy’s Penguin wave energy converter is successfully re-installed at Billia Croo as part of the CEFOW (Clean Energy from Ocean Waves) project.
2017Fall of Warness: Tocardo installed Temporary Foundation System (TFS) and are granted accreditation under the Renewables Obligation (RO) scheme for 1.4 MW deployment
2017Shapinsay Sound: EC-OG deploy Subsea Power Hub at EMEC's Shapinsay Sound scale test site.
2017Hydrogen: World's first tidal-powered hydrogen generated at EMEC's Fall of Warness tidal test site
2017Major study of wildlife observations collected around EMEC's wave and tidal energy test sites finds little evidence of any long-term effects on the use of surrounding seas by the birds and marine mammals living in the area
2017Awards: EMEC win the ‘Marine and Hydro Energy’ award at the Rushlight Awards 2016-17.
2017Collaboration: The fourth meeting of the International WaTERS (Wave and Tidal Energy Research Sites) network, facilitated by EMEC, took place in Gran Canaria (Canary Islands), Spain, co-hosted by PLOCAN.
2018Scapa Flow: CorPower test C3 wave energy converter at EMEC Scapa Flow scale test site
2018Awards: EMEC highlighted by the Institution of Civil Engineers’ (ICE’s) 200th anniversary as one of the top 200 inspirational and world-changing projects from around the world.
2018Billia Croo: Microsoft 450 kW underwater data centre deployed at EMEC Billia Croo wave test site by Naval Group; powered by renewables and cooled by the sea
2018Billia Croo: Wello Penguin survives one-year of continuous operation at Billia Croo, surviving waves of over 18 metres
2018Orbital Marine Power (formerly Scotrenewables Tidal Power) announce 3 GWh cumulative generation during one year of prototype testing at EMEC Fall of Warness tidal test site.
2018Hydrogen: EMEC announce €11 million Interreg North-West Europe (NWE) funded ITEG project to develop an all-in-one solution for the generation of clean predictable energy, grid management, and the production of hydrogen from excess capacity.
2019Fall of Warness: Magallanes Renovables deploy ATIR tidal turbine
2019EMEC-led ReFLEX Orkney project launches to integrate and decarbonise power, heat and transport in Orkney
2020EMEC achieves world’s first ocean energy RETL designation
2020Hydrogen: HyFlyer project achieves world-first hydrogen-electric flight
2020Hydrogen: EMEC unveil end-to-end hydrogen refuelling solution for aviation
2020ReFLEX Orkney launches innovative green energy services for Orkney
2021EMEC delivers world’s first international Power Performance Assessment to Verdant
2021Fall of Warness: Orbital O2 deployed and starts generating power at EMEC's Fall of Warness tidal test site
2021Scapa Flow: Mocean Energy demonstrate Blue X wave energy converter at EMEC Scapa Flow scale test site
2021Awards: EMEC named Blue Economy Enterprise of the Year at The SHIREs (Scottish Highlands and Islands Rural Economy) Awards
2021Awards: EMEC named Champion of Renewables at the 2021 Scottish Green Energy Awards
2021Billia Croo: EMEC supplied hydrogen to iGTL who used it to create synthetic aviation fuel for the RAF using a temporary synthetic fuel plant set up at Billia Croo.
2022Scapa Flow: AWS test Archimedes Waveswing wave energy converter at EMEC Scapa Flow scale test site
2022Hydrogen: EMEC supplied hydrogen to Rolls Royce who used it for ground tests on a gas-powered turbine
2022Awards: EMEC becomes Official Nominator for The Earthshot Prize
2023EMEC celebrates 20th anniversary and publishes economic impact assessment valuing the impact of the test centre over two decades at £370 million to UK economy
2023Offshore wind: EMEC white paper details needs case for UK National Floating Wind Test Centre
2023Offshore wind: EMEC launch £1 million offshore wind research and innovation (R&I) programme
2023Awards: EMEC wins Outstanding Service Award at the 2023 Scottish Green Energy Awards

EMEC CLIENTS

Alstom

Alstom

hammerfest

hammerfest

Aquamarine

Aquamarine Power

atlantis

Atlantis Resources Corporation

Nautricity

Nautricity

Naval Group

Naval Group

openhydro

Open Hydro

Home_Orbital-Marine-logo

Orbital Marine

pelamis

pleamis

scottish_power

ScottishPower Renewables

seatricity

Seatricity

Sustainable Marine Energy

Sustainable Marine Energy

voith

Voith Hydro

Wello

Wello Oy

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