Marine Renewable Energy

Scotland’s huge renewable energy potential is world-renowned and the envy of many of our neighbouring countries. A large part of that potential is at sea and with so much dramatic coastline, Scotland enjoys 25% of Europe’s wave and tidal potential energy. Hence, it is not just for their unspoiled beauty that our coastal areas are so valued.

To make the best use of this resource, we must continue to develop the very best in wave and tidal power technology. However, while the rough seas around Scotland’s coast provide some of the greatest concentrated wave and tidal resources in the world they also present considerable challenges for development, installation and operation of marine energy technology.

To support research and development in this key sector, the Scottish Government has announced this week that five marine energy developers are to benefit from £7.9 million funding to further develop testing of new wave and tidal prototypes in the seas around Scotland.

The second round of WATERS (Wave & Tidal Energy: Research, Development & Demonstration Support) funding is to enable Scottish developers to capture an increased share of the growing international marine energy market, which could be worth up to £4 billion to Scotland’s economy by 2020.

Over and above this, the Scottish Government has unveiled the four companies competing for the £10m clean energy Saltire Prize. The largest renewables innovation award of its kind, the Saltire Prize will be won by the team that achieves the greatest volume of electrical output in Scottish waters over a continuous two-year period, using only the power of the sea. Three of these projects will be based in the Pentland Firth & Orkney Waters, while the Oyster wave energy converter will be deployed off the Isle of Lewis.

These, and other innovative renewable energy systems are vital components in achieving the Scottish Government’s ambitious renewables target of meeting the equivalent of 100 per cent of gross annual electricity demand entirely from renewables by 2020.

2011 was a record breaker, with enough green electricity being produced in Scotland to comfortably beat our yearly target. Indeed, Scotland met almost 40 per cent of the UK’s renewables output in 2011, demonstrating just how much the rest of the UK relies upon our energy.

Scotland is currently at the cutting edge of marine power technology and the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney (a world leader, which hosts more devices than at any other single site in the world) demonstrates how far this young and expanding industry has come in recent years. The investment in pioneering technology and Saltire Prize challenge have helped draw international attention to the planet-saving potential of wave and tidal power, and will serve to drive the development of similar large-scare, commercial marine electricity generation from which we can all benefit.

Renewable energy offers our country incredible opportunities and this investment is our latest step towards the reindustrialisation of Scotland. There are already more than 11,000 people employed in jobs linked to Scotland’s renewables industry and key to bringing in future jobs and investment is to ensure we remain at the forefront of innovation, which is why these projects are so important.

The long-term boost to our economy that these technological developments could bring simply cannot be underestimated and, with Scotland’s tradition of marine expertise in high demand, the future is bright for Scotland’s on- and off-shore engineering industry.