Investment in Scotland's marine energy industry

Scotland is the perfect location for wave and tidal energy investment with Scottish waters having some of the best waves in Europe.

Scotland’s combined offshore resource is estimated at 206 GW. Estimates show that by 2050 Scotland could generate 4 GW of electricity from wave energy, 5 GW from tidal stream and 2 GW from tidal range.

Scotland’s wave and tidal energy infrastructure

The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), based in Orkney, has been key to Scotland’s marine energy success. EMEC is the world’s first full scale testing, accreditation and development centre for wave and tidal devices allowing developer to test devices in optimum wave and tidal conditions.

In the world’s first commercial wave and tidal leasing round, The Crown Estate, which grants seabed development rights, has agreed the development of six wave and five tidal schemes in the Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters.

The estimated total capital investment in the projects will be between £3 and £4 billion by 2020.

Scotland is already home to a number of high-profile wave energy companies:

  • Pelamis Wave Power – Manufactures the Pelamis wave energy convertor. In March 2010 Pelamis announced a second order for its P2 device, currently being tested at EMEC, from Scottish Power Renewables
  • Voith Wavegen Ltd – developed the Land Installed Marine Powered Energy Transformer (LIMPET), the world’s first commercial-scale wave energy device to generate energy for the national grid. Wavegen have planning permission to construct a 4MW system of 40 100kW turbines, the largest OWC-based project in the world
  • AWS Ocean Energy – started testing its new AWS-III wave energy device in Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands with plans to deploy 20 devices in Scottish waters by 2012
  • Aquamarine Power – Will develop an Oyster wave farm in the Pentland Firth with SSE Renewables. They are currently developing their Oyster 2 device

Tidal energy companies based here include:

  • OpenHydro –the first operator to connect a UK tidal device to the national grid with Scottish Government funding to assist with developing a second-generation, fully connected device
  • Hammerfest Strom UK – partnered with ScottishPower to bring new tidal turbines to the market
  • Lunar Energy – full scale prototype of Rotech Tidal Turbine design will be deployed EMEC in 2011
  • Green Ocean Energy – developing Wave Treader, a unique wave energy device which attaches to the transition piece of an offshore wind turbine
  • Atlantis Resources Corporation – have successfully deployed their AK1000™ tidal turbine at EMEC

Funding Scotland's wave and tidal energy industry