News this week

EMEC was very pleased to hear that several clients bound for our test sites in Orkney were successful in receiving funding from the Carbon Trust this week. Atlantis Resources, Aquamarine Power, Hammerfest Strom UK, and Pelamis Wave Power received support from the £22 million Marine Renewable Proving Fund (MRPF). The MRPF is intended to accelerate the most promising marine devices towards the point of being deployed commercially at scale, leading to faster progress in the marine energy sector. The importance of full scale testing such as at EMEC was confirmed by Tom Delay, Chief Executive of the Carbon Trust, who said: “The demonstration of full scale devices at sea is central to realising the full potential of marine energy and getting the first commercial projects in the water is critical to ‘de-risk’ the technology and attract the necessary private sector investment. This is the start of major new industry that will generate jobs and wealth across the UK.”

EMEC’s Research Advisory Group met in Edinburgh this week. The group meets twice a year to discuss, analyse and guide ongoing research involvement, and this time looked at funding opportunities for research projects as well as capitalising upon and coordinating the best use of wider UK marine renewables related facilities.

Lastly, the new receiving stations at the Black Craig and on Eday have helped provide a useful picture of marine traffic around Orkney recently. EMEC established the stations to pick up the Automatic Identification System (AIS) used by vessels to provide a wide range of information, including their position, speed and course. This is building a comprehensive picture of the sea areas most used by shipping, to help steer the safe commercial deployment of marine energy devices in Orkney waters. The information is important for EMEC, as it prepares for an increase in testing activity, but is also available to the public over the internet (on the MarineTraffic and shipAIS websites). The map above shows all the vessel movements around Orkney waters on one day (27 January 2010), including the Survey work EMEC was undertaking around Rose Ness as a potential new nursery site for scale testing.