News this week
EMEC has recently achieved funding for the following projects:
Billia Croo Wildlife Observations
This has been jointly funded by SNH and nPower to assess the potential for wave energy devices operating in situ to cause disturbance or displacement to wildlife species whose normal habitats/breeding areas occur in the vicinity of sites of deployment of such devices.
ADCP Deployment and Retrieval Methodology
This project has been funded by nPower and will provide a suitable methodology for the safe and accurate deployment of ADCP measuring devices in strong tidal currents. This will be in the form of a 5-day repeatable course, developed and run by Orkney College, which will ensure the incorporation of all H&S and navigational issues associated with works at sea.
EQUIMAR
EMEC will be involved with the EQUIMAR project which will deliver a suite of protocols for the equitable evaluation of marine energy converters. These protocols will harmonise testing and evaluation procedures across the wide variety of devices presently available with the aim of accelerating adoption though technology matching and improved understanding of the environmental and economic impacts associated with the deployment of arrays of devices. Further details are placed on the Research Section of the website as they become available.
The Operations Team have been busy in Eday this week working with a developer on site and carrying our preparatory work for two further developers due to deploy this summer.
Visits this week include Diana Muriel from CNBC filming an item for the Hubs of Innovation segment in CNBC’s World Business programme focusing on tidal power and renewable energy. Thanks to contact with Orkney Renewable Energy Forum, she was able to film other activities within Orkney’s renewable industry during her visit here. Also, Duncan Mackay from the Crown Estate and Louise Smith, Pentland Firth Tidal Energy Project Manager, HIE Caithness and Sutherland visited EMEC and the Billia Croo Wave Test site – see picture above.
