News this week

Finnish company Wello Oy yesterday held a public information session in Stromness about the deployment of their wave energy converter – “the Penguin”. Wello held a small exhibition at the Pier Arts Centre about the device and the operations involved in its deployment, and in the evening gave a short presentation about the Penguin machine and its journey from idea to full scale deployment. The Penguin (see picture), which is currently under construction in Riga, Latvia, will be arriving for testing at Billia Croo in the Summer. Approximately 30m in length, the 1600 tonne device is expected to produce between 0.5-1MW of power.

Last week Aquamarine Power’s Oyster 1 machine was moved from its berth at Billia Croo – local firms Orkney Towage and Leask Marine towed the device to a seabed site at Lyness where it will be inspected to find out how the components have fared after two winters in the water. Learning from the Oyster 1 machine will inform the development and construction of Oyster 2 which is due to be brought to EMEC this Summer.

Over on the tidal test site Scotrenewables deployed their SR250 tidal turbine at the Fall of Warness for the first time last week.

Atlantis Resources Corporation, has just announced it has raised $6M USD (£3.7M) to support its research and development programme. This successful fundraise involved predominantly existing shareholders and will be used to finance deployment and testing of the AK 1000 turbine at EMEC this summer.

Neil Kermode participated the UK government’s Low Carbon Innovation Group (LCIG) who held a workshop last week to explore the innovation needs for marine energy to ensure that future government-backed innovation support programmes are focused to maximum effect. The marine workshop is one of a series of technology specific workshops being planned over the next few months. These workshops are a key part of the LCIG’s Technology Innovation Needs Assessments (TINA) Project – a collaborative effort between members of the LCIG, pooling their knowledge and developing a shared analysis of the innovation needs of a range of key low carbon technology families.

EMEC’s Research Director Jenny Norris and Hydrodynamicist John Lawrence travelled to Zandaam and Den Oever in the Netherlands last week to participate in the final stages of the EquiMar project, and closer to home Stuart Baird, Operations Director, gave a presentation to the Board of Orkney Marinas.