Orkney’s European Marine Energy Centre (Emec) is to become part of a world network of wave and tidal-energy test sites.
Emec and other facilities spanning Europe, Asia, and North America have agreed to co-ordinate their procedures and standards to ensure consistency in testing marine-energy devices globally.
The commitment was made at an industry gathering, jointly hosted by Emec and Canada’s Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy in association with the International Conference on Ocean Energy, held in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Delegates agreed that standards were vital in the development of test centres for ocean-energy, and that common ways need to be established for the collection and analysis of data.
Sharing of data, best practice and lessons learnt were also key themes during the talks.
Emec managing director Neil Kermode said: “The establishment of a global network of test sites will, I believe, lead to a community of interest with common standards and approaches to the business of marine-energy.
“Common standards, developed by worldwide experience, can only help accelerate the deployment of wave and tidal technologies.
“You only have to travel overseas and attempt to plug in a computer to see what I mean. Every country established their own standards for plugs and sockets in isolation and the end result is pointless diversity.
“Marine-energy devices are no different. In time, wave and tidal technologies will find their markets in dozens of countries and Emec wants this to be as easy as possible.
“We want a wave or tidal device which is certified at Emec to be immediately marketable in any country, without expensive and time consuming re-validation.”
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