Location of Choice

The Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters Marine Energy Park already comprises essential elements of a world class marine energy location.

Its impressive wave and tidal regimes are already harnessed by the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) – the world’s leading test facility for full scale prototype marine energy devices. This asset alone has earned the location global recognition as a hub of excellence and innovation, and led to unparalleled industry and academic experience in the marine energy sector.

EMEC remains the world's first and currently only fully accredited full-scale test facility for both wave and tidal energy devices. EMEC's test infrastructure and operations represents an accumulated investment by the UK public sector over the past 8 years approaching £35m. In recent years, to accommodate demand at the facility, EMEC has added two 'nursery' sites, one wave and one tidal where developers can test at less than full-scale, prior to working on the full-scale test sites.

At present (September 2012), all of EMEC's full-scale berths are contracted to leading wave and tidal developers, with 14 developers signed up across the two sites to test and demonstrate the performance of their cutting-edge technology. These developers include industry heavy-weights such as OpenHydro, Voith Hydro, Kawasaki, Pelamis Wave Power, ScottishPower Renewables and E.ON.

The world’s first commercial scale wave and tidal leasing round in the Pentland Firth and Orkney waters, being delivered by The Crown Estate, further adds to this world class marine energy location, with eleven leases secured by major developers for up to 1.6GW capacity.

These key elements are supported by an experienced and knowledgeable supply chain, convenient access to major offshore fabrication facilities, essential deep-water port facilities and infrastructure, and a solid core of cutting-edge academic research, teaching and skills development.

Significant investment is already committed to upgrading infrastructure throughout the Highlands and Islands with a view to supporting commercial scale offshore deployments and will support new and expanding supply chain opportunities in the marine energy sector.

The Marine Energy Park is also home to Enterprise Areas and Zones, including Hatston, Lyness, Scrabster, Arnish and Nigg, offering incentives for new renewable businesses to locate and invest in the area.

Click here to see a map of the Marine Energy Park