News this week

Firstly, apologies to anyone who found our website down over the past week – some technical work has been undertaken and everything should be back to normal.

Last week Richard Morris, EMEC’s Commercial Director, attended the press unveiling of the new 10m Openhydro device during a visit to Canada. The device is the size of a 6 story building when on its gravity base, and will be one of the three devices being deployed in the Bay of Fundy. Richard also had a tour around the proposed site with members of Force and Minas Basin Pulp and Energy.

Eileen Linklater, Client and Marketing Manager, attended WATTS 2009 last week – the Renewable Energy Association’s annual Wave and Tidal Conference. The event saw around 60 industry professionals gather to discuss marine renewables developments at at Leashowe Castle, The Wirral (which had the added interest of overlooking 3 offshore wind farms).

This week Eileen also went to the Caithness Conference 2009 in Wick, organised by the Caithness and North Sutherland Regeneration Partnership where Jim Murphy MP, Secretary of State for Scotland, gave the keynote speech. A great deal of discussion around opportunities for the region centred upon marine renewables, including a very positive message on working closely with Orkney to prepare for future industry needs on both sides of the Firth.

Recent visitors to EMEC include:

• A group of local tour guides who came to learn more about EMEC and marine renewables to pass on to visiting tourists; they also walked up the Black Craig to see where our new interpretation board will soon be sited;
• Participants from the Sustainable Islands Conference recently held in Inverness, who chose to take a day trip to Orkney, visiting Billia Croo as well as other local attractions;
• Mark Jennison, from Energy4All, who is researching local opportunities for community investment in renewables; and
• 15 Journalists (pictured above) from all over Europe (Portugal, France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Turkey, Denmark, Norway, Spain, Finland, and Estonia) who visited EMEC’s wave and tidal sites on a trip to Scotland organised by UK Trade and Investment and Scottish Development International.