Blog: High profile visitors from near and far
UK Business Secretary Vince Cable was in Orkney at the weekend where he met with EMEC Managing Director Neil Kermode, MP Alistair Carmichael, various technology developers and associated supply chain companies at the EMEC offices in Stromness, followed by a visit to the Billia Croo wave test site. The group explained the progress that had been made in bringing forward the industry based in large part on the timely infrastructure investment in the setting up of EMEC. The meeting also discussed how the present positive drive to develop marine energy can be maintained and extended to bring forward the full benefits of the public, and now increasingly private, investment in the sector.
Neil also met with Crawford Gillies, Scottish Enterprise Chairman, when he visited Orkney last week: his first visit to EMEC. Following meeting with representatives from HIE, Orkney Islands Council, technology developers and supply chain companies, he was accompanied by HIE on a flight over EMEC’s test sites at the Fall of Warness and Billia Croo, the Lyness marine renewables port development and the Pentland Firth, providing invaluable insight into the scale of activity in Orkney.
Orkney was also host to Canadian, Brazilian and Japanese delegations last week specifically interested in the exciting developments happening in marine renewables on and around the islands. The delegations were taken on a tour of the EMEC wave test site, and provided with a presentation on the history and current activities at EMEC. This was followed by a number of subsequent presentations by HIE, Orkney Islands Council’s Harbours Department, Aquatera and Xodus.
And over the weekend we welcomed a Korean delegation to EMEC with representatives from Korea Maritime University, Korea Marine Equipment Research Institute, Mokpo National Maritime University and Hyundai Heavy Industries who met with Neil, prior to a visit to the wave test site at Billia Croo. They then immersed themselves in Orkney culture, touring the Ring of Brodgar, the Standing Stones, and Skara Brae, a quick visit to Hatston Industrial Estate to see the TGL turbines currently stationed there, and then out to the Churchill Barriers.
