A new EU programme to fund open-sea trials for ocean energy is to be led by the European Marine Energy Centre, which is based in Scotland’s Orkney islands. The aim of the €11m project – which brings together Europe’s leading ocean energy test facilities to help demonstrate tidal, wave and offshore wind energy technologies in real-sea conditions – is to boost investor-confidence that such devices will actually work in-situ. Scottish Energy Minister Paul Wheelhouse, commented: “The €11m FORESEA project is a tremendous achievement by EMEC and complements the innovative funding approaches for marine energy that the Scottish Government is already providing. “Scotland is recognised as a world leader in wave and tidal energy with some of the leading technologies being developed and tested here. “This project will allow technology developers to move towards commercial readiness at the world’s leading ocean test facilities; the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney as well as in Ireland, France and the Netherlands.” Rémi Gruet, Chief Executive, Ocean Energy Europe said: “The size of the prize for commercialising ocean energy is huge. “In Europe alone, the industry plans to deploy 100GW of generation capacity by 2050, meeting 10% of Europe’s electricity demand. Not only does this mean generating clean and secure renewable energy, it also means creating a new industrial sector based firmly in Europe.”
Scottish Energy News 15th July 2016 read more »