Two more Oyster devices for Orkney's wave farm

Highland Correspondent

Wednesday 15 February 2012

Power generated by an arrangement of "near-shore" wave devices should soon be feeding into the National Grid for the first time in Scotland.

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David Ross

Two new Oyster wave energy converters will be added to an existing device at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) at Billia Croo on the Orkney mainland, to allow operators Aquamarine Power to test the devices as an array. The Scottish Government granted its consent for the project on Monday.

Martin McAdam, chief executive of Aquamarine, said: "This is clear evidence Scotland is not only leading the way in marine energy technology, but shows that regulator Marine Scotland is putting in place the timely and efficient consent and permitting processes which will enable our industry to grow."Consents are vital. A clear pathway to all the necessary permits for marine energy development is one of the critical enablers for a business such as ours, and countries which lack a transparent and timely system will fall behind. We installed the first Oyster 800 device in September, and the consent means we can now install a further two Oyster wave energy devices at the same site at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney."The Oyster 800 array will consist of three 800kW Oyster devices and will be the UK's first grid-connected near-shore wave power array."It paves the way for us to continue working with Marine Scotland to further streamline the consents process and gain all the necessary consents for our 200MW wave energy site in Orkney, and our 40MW site on Lewis."The Oyster device is a simple mechanical hinged flap connected to the seabed at 30 feet to 40 feet depth and about 550 yards from the shore. Each passing wave moves the flap, driving hydraulic pistons to deliver high pressure water via a pipeline to an onshore station.Energy Minster Fergus Ewing said: "I am delighted to grant consent to these two new Oyster devices, the first near-shore wave array in Scotland to feed in to the National Grid. "This array will supply more than 1,000 homes with clean energy, and should the demonstrator be successful the technology being developed here will power hundreds of thousands more homes in future."

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Two more Oyster devices for Orkney's wave farm

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