A new nation-wide fund aimed at supporting the development of marine renewables has been established by Scottish Enterprise.

Experts believe that thousands of miles of Scotland’s coastline could become a £multi-billion Marine Energy industry. Scotland still has a long way to go, but success in the sector will secure long-term prosperity for Scotland’s wider energy industry, positioning Scotland alongside the world’s elite renewable communities – and result in massive economic gains for Scotland.

However, capturing this opportunity requires innovation and technological development – something which Scottish Enterprise will continue to support. To help Scottish companies begin to grasp the marine energy opportunity, the Scottish Enterprise Energy Team has established a new fund aimed at supporting the development of the wet  renewables sector technologies and processes.

Being a competitive fund, Scottish Marine Energy Support Fund applications will be assessed by a panel of independent adjudicators who will judge each application against relevant economic and business growth impact criteria. Moreover, in assessing applications, the adjudicators will consider funding up to 50% of internal or external Marine Energy sector project development costs.

Scottish Enterprise will consider both small and large scale projects which are executed in Scotland and the Fund is open to all companies, regardless of whether or not they are currently operating in the renewables sector.  For example, the oil and gas supply chain is likely to contain a number of companies with technologies which could be easily adapted and applied to the Marine renewables sector.

The Scottish Marine Energy Support Fund aims to support the development of key technologies and processes that will enable measurable growth in the Scottish Marine Energy sector. Typically, projects which would attract funding would include, but would not be limited to, the development of Wet Renewables industry components such as:

Subsea connectors;

Oceanographic instruments;

Anchoring and seabed monitoring devices;

Direct drive low speed generators.

Companies interested in applying should contact:

Scottish Enterprise Energy Team

10 Queens Road

Aberdeen AB15 4ZT

Tel: 01224 252 000 / Fax: 01224 627 006