- European Marine Energy Centre
The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) is a Scottish Government-backed research facility based in
Stromness ,Orkney that has installed awave power testing system at Billia Croo on the Orkney mainland and atidal power testing station on the nearby island ofEday . [cite web|url=http://www.emec.org.uk/|title=European Marine Energy Centre|accessdate=2007-02-03] At the official opening of the Eday project the site was described as "the first of its kind in the world set up to provide developers of wave and tidal energy devices with a purpose-built performance testing facility." [cite press release |title=First Minister Opens New Tidal Energy Facility at EMEC |publisher=Highlands and Islands Enterprise |date=2007-09-28 |url=http://www.allmediascotland.com/media_releases/1687/first_minister_opens_new_tidal_energy_facility_at_emec |accessdate=2007-10-01 |quote=The centre offers developers the opportunity to test prototype devices in unrivalled wave and tidal conditions. Wave and tidal energy converters are connected to the National Grid via seabed cables running from open-water test berths. Testing takes place in a wide range of sea and weather conditions, with comprehensive round-the-clock monitoring.]Wave Power
The wave site at Billa Croo consists of four berths located about 2km from shore and in a water depth of around 50m.
Pelamis Wave Power became the first developer to install a device at EMEC in August 2004 [http://www.emec.org.uk/wave_site_activity.asp] . Their
Pelamis P750 wave energy device was the first in the world to generate electricity into the grid system from offshore wave energy.Funding for the UK's first
wave farm was announced by theScottish Executive onFebruary 22 2007 . It will be the world's largest, with a capacity of 3 MW generated by four Pelamis wave energy converter machines at a cost of over £4 million. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/6377423.stm "Orkney to get 'biggest' wave farm"] BBC News. Retrieved25 February 2007 .] The funding is part of a new £13 million funding package for marine power projects in Scotland that will also support developments to Aquamarine's Oyster and Ocean Power Technology's PowerBuoy wave systems, AWS Ocean Energy's sub-sea wave devices, ScotRenewables' 1.2 MW floating rotor device, Cleantechcom's tidal surge plans for the Churchill barriers between various Orkney islands, the Open Hydro tidal ring turbines, and further developments to theWavegen system proposed forLewis as well as a further £2.5 million for EMEC itself. [ Johnston, Ian (21 February 2007 ) [http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=276372007 "Scotland seas into the future"] . Edinburgh. "The Scotsman". Retrieved on31 August 2007 .]Tidal Power
The tidal site is at the "Fall of Warness" to the west of the Island of Eday in an area in which the tide flows reach 4m/sec (7.8 knots) at springs. There are four test berths at depths ranging from 25 to 50m.
The first developer to use the site is the Irish company OpenHydro, which installed a 250KW unit at the end of 2006. It provided power to the grid on
May 26 ,2008 , the firsttidal stream generator to do so. This is part of their programme to develop an array of 1MB turbines inAlderney in theChannel Islands in 2009. [cite news
url=http://www.openhydro.com/news/OpenHydroPr-270508.pdf
title=OpenHydro becomes the first Tidal Energy company to generate electricity onto the UK National Grid
date=2008-05-27|accessdate=2008-08-16] Lunar Energy have announced their intention to install a 1MW version of their RTT technology. [cite news
url=http://www.lunarenergy.co.uk/thenewsDetail.php?id=12
title=Tidal power is renewable and reliable.
author=Andrea Tyrrell
publisher=Environmental Scientist
date=Oct/Nov 2007|accessdate=2008-08-16]ee also
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Renewable energy in Scotland References
External links
[http://www.emec.org.uk/ EMEC Orkney]
[http://www.aquamarinepower.com Aquamarine Power]
[http://www.oceanpowertechnologies.com Ocean Power Technology]
[http://www.pelamiswave.com Pelamis Wave Power]
[http://www.scotrenewables.com ScotRenewables]
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