Page 51 - European Energy Innovation - winter 2018 publication

Winter 2018 European Energy Innovation 51
At EMEC, we’re particularly proud to
see the progress made at MeyGen,
which employs technologies only one
generation on from devices tested at
our facilities in Orkney.
Whilst not on the same scale as the
MeyGen project, Nova Innovation’s
tidal turbine array in Bluemill Sound,
Shetland, has completed a successful
first year of operation, chalking up
some notable achievements along
the way. The array, which comprises
of three 100kW tidal turbines, was
recently integrated with a Tesla
battery storage system to produce a
constant output and Nova Innovation
is planning to increase the number of
turbines on the site to six.
All of this encouraging activity – most as shipbuilding or fishing, marine
of which is European in origin – is
potentially very good news for the
world’s climate. However, we now
have a choice to make. Wave and tidal
resources are inexhaustible and will
always be there. But if we are to make
the leap to full-scale commercial
wave and tidal energy harvesting
and generation, then significant and
sustained investment has to be made.
We must ensure that the most
capable marine renewables
developers get all the help they
need to unlock the ocean’s potential,
which in turn will help support the
Orbital Marine Power SR2000 at EMEC tidal test site Photo: ©Orbital Marine Power nowadays. Equally, creating an
www.europeanenergyinnovation.eu
MARINE ENERGY
economies in some of Europe’s most
remote and peripheral communities.
In Orkney, very much a peripheral
community, we’re seeing hard
evidence of the economic value of
marine energy with a supply chain
that now supports over 200 jobs
locally across a range of sectors,
from world-leading environmental
consultancies, to marine operations
specialists. Studies have also shown
that the £36 million invested in
establishing EMEC in Orkney has
since delivered to the UK a GVA of
£284.7 million, with 4,224 full-time
equivalent (FTE) job years.
For European communities once
heavily reliant on industries such
renewables represents an opportunity
they cannot afford to let pass. Tidal
developer Orbital Marine Power’s
SR2000 turbine was constructed in
Belfast, while Magallanes Renovables
utilised local manufacturing expertise
in Vigo. Marine energy provides real
work in economically disadvantaged
areas by using existing skills within
communities.
Solving challenges around marine
energy also engenders a culture
of innovation within these already
resourceful areas. At EMEC we deal
with innovators every day, both at
a developer level, and in a local
supply chain context. Marine energy
is full of solution-focused groups of
professionals who see opportunity in
the seemingly impossible.
It’s just that kind of mindset which
is helping Orkney overcome some
of the issues around grid capacity
– the islands produce well over
100 per cent of electricity needs
from renewable sources, but many
generators have been constrained
due to grid inadequacies. Those
restrictions sparked a local hydrogen
generation scheme, now successfully
up and running, which combines
wind and tidal energy to create
hydrogen for use in island transport.
And, if further evidence was needed
that innovation breeds innovation
within peripheral communities,
consider Microsoft’s endorsement
of Orkney as the chosen location for
its ground-breaking seawater cooled
data centre, currently submerged at
EMEC’s Billia Croo wave test site.
In conclusion, only time will tell
whether Europe fully seizes the
opportunities that marine energy
presents or allows this enormous
potential to be realised elsewhere
in the world. But governments and
investors have to realise that the
nature of marine energy requires a
degree of patience that’s uncommon
entirely new industry takes sensible
amounts of money, along with vision
and passion.
Marine energy isn’t a sprint, it’s a
marathon, but not finishing this race
simply isn’t an option for the planet
or the economy. l
For further information please contact:
European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC)
Web: www.emec.org.uk
Email: info@emec.org.uk
Tel: +44(0) 1856852060