News this week

Funding initiatives

The second round of the valuable WATERS (Wave and Tidal Energy: Research, Development and Demonstration Support) fund opened this week with a further £6 million of funding available for wave and tidal technology development. The primary focus of the WATERS 2 fund is to support the construction and deployment of wave and tidal stream energy prototypes at EMEC and elsewhere in Scottish waters, thus promoting research and development activities in Scotland, and reducing the cost to developers. Aquamarine Power received £3.15m in the first round of the WATERS fund which went towards the development of their Oyster 800 device, currently being tested at the Billia Croo wave test site. This funding further demonstrates the support from the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise, and Highlands and Islands Enterprise to the development of the wave and tidal industry in Scotland. Click here for the full press release.

Further information on the WATERS 2 fund, and how to apply, can be found on the Scottish Enterprise website.

And as the WATERS 2 fund opens, the first call for the MaRINET program is fast approaching its deadline for applications, which closes on the 29th February 2012. That’s less than two weeks to apply for funding to access EMECs scale testing facilities. For more information on the MaRINET initiative, and to make an application visit the MaRINET website.

EMEC news

Neil Kermode teleconferenced into the Technology Strategy Board’s ‘Energy Generation and Supply Knowledge Transfer Network’ (EG&S KTN) steering group meeting this week, chaired by Chris Murray of the National Grid. The EG&S KTN aims to accelerate the technical development of technologies, by encouraging and enabling the sharing of knowledge and information across the industry, through the creation of an integrated and dynamic network of business, technology, academic and policy stakeholders. Neil was impressed by the progress of the EG&S KTN in recruiting members, and hopes that this encourages increased knowledge exchange, which is vital for the industry to develop and move towards commercialisation.

And visiting EMEC this week were representatives from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) who were in Orkney for an update on local activities, particularly the new nursery test facilities and for discussions of the MaRINET project in which SEAI are also a partner.