News this week

ROV surveys of all 5, 11kV cables have been undertaken at the Tidal Test Site over the past 2 weeks. The results are now being collated into an internal report.

The 3rd September Environmental Guidelines meeting in Edinburgh was a very useful and well attended event. Regulators from across the UK attended and discussed prioritization of the potential key environmental impacts. During the fruitful dialogue, consensus was reached on that prioritization, and detailed discussions followed on the approaches to monitoring related to those perceived potential impacts. All attendees considered the event to be extremely beneficial.

EMEC also invited representatives from the MCA, NLB and Scottish Government to Orkney this week, to discuss issues relating to Navigational Safety at both test sites. As well as positive and expansive discussions, the representatives were also taken to the tidal test site to see current operations out there. This was seen as an extremely valuable exercise to gain, at first hand, experience of the marine conditions on both sites. A visit to the island of Eday itself also allowed the visitors to experience both the topography and history of the island by visiting the Eday Heritage Centre for a lovely lunch in the newly opened (Summer 2008) facilities. When back at EMEC’s offices in Stromness the opportunity was taken to have discussions with local stakeholders on the possible impact of marine renewables on local ferries and harbours. The photograph shows Jennifer Norris explaining the environmental monitoring process whilst overlooking the Tidal Test Site.

Matthew Finn, Research Assistant will be at the BWEA Ocean Energy Group meeting in Cardiff on Monday and Tuesday next week. Feedback will follow in the next news item.

The Scottish Government has published its report ‘Energy Policy: An Overview’. They have also published, as of today, a consultation on changes to the Renewables Obligation (Scotland). This gives a more than welcome potential financial boost to wave and tidal energy developers, increasing ROCs to 5 for wave per MW of power and 3 for tide.

Last week, Edwina Cook visited Kirkcaldy Council in Fife and also attended the SCDI Future Energy Conference in Edinburgh. Neil Kermode gave a presentation in the Orkney Science Festival on Monday 8th September.

Visitors to EMEC included our insurers, d2 from Glasgow on Tuesday 9th, wave developers on Thursday 11th, and 3 members of Orkney Skyline Concern on Friday 12th September.