Scottish renewables firms receive funding boost

FIVE marine energy developers in Scotland have received nearly £8 million to help develop new wave and tidal technology, it was announced today.

Three tidal power and two wave energy firms will share £7.9m from the second funding round of the Wave & Tidal Energy: Research, Development & Demonstration Support, or WATERS, initiative.

WATERS, a joint venture of the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise, and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, aims to help Scottish companies gain a greater share of the international marine energy market, which could be worth up to £4 billion to Scotland’s economy by 2020. The first round of WATERS funding in 2010 saw four Scottish marine energy projects awarded £6 million.

Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced the awards after visiting Scotrenewables Tidal Power Ltd, which was given £1.2 million towards a £9.24 million project for a commercial-scale floating tidal turbine off Orkney.

She said: “Ambitious clean-tech developers such as Scotrenewables Tidal Power, and the prototypes they are developing, are testament to how far the marine renewables sector has progressed in just a few years.

“The WATERS 2 funding sends a further clear signal that Scotland – already blessed with some of the world’s greatest concentrations of marine energy resource and with unrivalled offshore energy engineering expertise – will continue to provide the optimum research and investment environment for developers and commercial partners.”

WATERS 2 grants were also awarded to AlbaTERN, which received £617,000 towards a £1.3 million wave energy scheme, while AWS Ocean Energy was given £3.9 million for a £15.6 million project to design, build and launch a seperate wave power initiative.

Nautricity was alloted £1.4 million for a £4.9 million project testing a full-scale, tidal turbine and Oceanflow Development received £750,000 for a £1.3 million project to build and test a prototype tidal energy turbine.