News this week

Professor David Miles of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, and William Dowson, the Bank’s Scottish Agent, visited EMEC on Wednesday to find out more about developments taking place on Orkney in marine renewables. Afterwards, they headed to Lyness to view Wello Oy’s Penguin device and E.ON’s P2 Pelamis device.

Earlier in the week, a group from China, including representatives from the Ocean University of China visited EMEC, prior to taking a tour of the Billia Croo and Eday test sites. The group were interested in learning about the key wave and tidal stream sites and technologies in the UK, in order to guide policy implementation and accelerate the development of ocean energy in China, and provide support to British developers, companies and research institutions to do business in China.

Outwith EMEC, Seatricity have announced that an agreement has been reached to lease the Ness Boatyard at Stromness for a period of five years. The Boatyard will act as a main base for Seatricity, who will be carrying out some fabrication and storage there, thus providing work opportunities for local contractors. For more information, visit the Seatricity website.

And finally, EMEC has recently been shortlist in the New Energy Infrastructure Project of the Year category at The Renewable Energy Infrastructure Awards 2011 which take place in London on 10th November 2011. EMEC has also been selected as a finalist in the 2011 Scottish Green Awards taking place in Glasgow on 29th September 2011. Watch this space for more details.