Orkney’s European Marine Energy Centre has in the past year seen activity rise to the extent the site has the most devices being tested than anywhere else in the world.
It has six wave test sites, booked out by Edinburgh-based Aquamarine Power, E.on, Vattenfall and ScottishPower Renewables with Edinburgh firm Pelamis’ devices, Finish firm Wello and Antigua/Kent-based Seatricity, which opened an office at Stromness in March.
Pelamis was the first wave machine to test at the site in 2004.
There are eight tidal sites, booked out by Ireland’s OpenHydro, Bristol-based Tidal Generation Limited (Rolls Royce), Atlantis Resources (part of the Meygen consortium with Morgan Stanley and International Power/GDF Suez), Scotrenewables, Voith Hydro (a joint venture between Voith and Siemens), Norway’s Andritz Hydro Hammerfest (previously Hammerfest Strom until Andritz became the majority owner earlier this year), Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Dutch firm Bluewater Energy Services.
There are then nursery sites, in less harsh conditions, home to Fife-based Flumill and Nottingham University’s energy bag device.
Such is the demand for sites at EMEC, the centre is considering expansion, a prospect Shetland has shown an interest in being involved in.
Farther afield, Bristol-based Siemens-owned Marine Current Turbines, which recently opened an office in Inverness, is using Strangford Lough, Ireland, for testing its SeaGen device.
North Shields-based company Oceanflow Energy has also been testing at Strangfird, with its Evopod tidal energy device, and the firm has plans for further testing south of Kintyre.
Welsh firm Tidal Energy is testing its DeltaStream unit off Pembrokeshire at Ramsey Sound.
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