World's biggest wave farm moves step closer

The world’s biggest wave farm has moved a step forward after it received funding from Scottish ministers today.

The project, which will be built off Orkney and have a capacity of 3MW, received £4.14m from the Scottish government. This should be enough to power 2000 homes.

The news comes as Scotland’s deputy first minister Nicol Stephen announced that a total of £13m would be available to help fund nine marine energy projects in Scottish waters. An initial fund of £8 million was increased to meet demand for the grants, he said.

The Orkney scheme will be operated by Scottish Power and its subsidiary CRE Energy. It will use four Pelamis machines, manufactured by Ocean Power Delivery, and should proceed in the next 12 months.

Ocean Power Delivery has already exported the Pelamis device for use in a commercial wave farm off the coast of Portugal.

Stephen said he would like to see Scotland become the renewables powerhouse of Europe. He said: “In the 1980s, Scotland did have an edge in terms of wind technology but we hesitated and failed to seize the opportunity and it went to Scandinavia, Germany and Spain. This time I’m determined that we push ahead as quickly as possible.”

He continued: “Scotland has the potential to generate a quarter of Europe’s marine energy and kick-starting the sector is vital if we are to create a significant industry based in Scotland and meet our long-term renewables targets.”