News this week

The CS Sovereign arrived in Orkney this week to lay three new seabed cables for EMEC, two at the tidal test site at the Fall of Warness off Eday and one at the wave test site at Billia Croo near Stromness. The 130-metre vessel, operated by Essex-based Global Marine Systems Ltd will also be used for maintenance work on existing cables at the two test sites.

EMEC are delighted to report that both new 4km cables in the Fall of Warness off Eday have been successfully laid. The first new cable which was completed on Tuesday is to be used by Atlantis Resources for their tidal turbine later in the year. The second new cable which was completed during Wednesday is for Voith Hydro Ocean Current Technologies. Voith will themselves shortly be commencing preparatory works on the site using the Jack-up Barge Pauline, (pictured above), to drill their monopole, in advance of their turbine installation next year.

The cable layer Sovereign is now working on fitting cable ends to the remaining cables at the Fall of Warness, following which the Sovereign will be moving to lay the final cable at the wave site at Billia Croo next week. These works have all been funded by the Department of Energy & Climate Change as part of its work to enable the development of the marine renewables industry.

Also this week, John Lawrence, EMEC’s Hydrodynamicist, has been in Venice at the latest Equimar meeting and EMEC was visited by politicians from both sides of the globe. First we hosted Roseanna Cunningham MSP, Minister for Environment who visited the wave test site at Billia Croo and was introduced to our wildlife observers at the Black Craig by Jenny Norris, EMEC’s Research Director. We also had a visit from Senator Isabel Allende and Senator Baldo Prokurica from Chile as part of a Scottish tour – with some of the best wave resources in the world on their western seaboard Chile is keen to learn from UK experience in Marine Energy.

Lastly, congratulations to the EMEC team who took part in the Stromness Shopping Week raft race on Tuesday evening – the team paddled from the Point of Ness to the Stromness Harbour on their tennis-themed raft “re-new balls please!”. Particular thanks to Chris Casely, EMEC’s Engineering Technician and master raft builder for all his hard work in constructing the raft and Chris, Christina, Donna, Eileen, Frances, Jennifer, Jenny and Roy for paddling!