AFTER the UK Government dealt a body blow to the Meygen tidal energy project in September metals tycoon Sanjeev Gupta has provided a shot in the arm for a project that could have huge significance.
Atlantis wanted support for a massive expansion of Meygen which it reckoned could help put Scotland at the forefront of a major global industry but ministers spurned its request on cost grounds.
Coming soon after the Aquamarine Power and Pelamis wave power businesses wentinto administration the rejection cast a pall over the emerging marine energy sector.
Mr Gupta has shown huge faith in Meygen by agreeing to combine his family’s SIMEC renewable energy business with Atlantis.
The move indicates he is confident the Government will decide in the end to support Meygen. As the Gupta family’s interests include the Liberty House metals business and Wyelands Bank, he may be able to help Atlantis cut the cost of developing Meygen.
Mr Gupta has acquired an aluminium smelter, steel mills and hydro power plants in Scotland under a plan to use renewable energy to help increase the profitability of metals production. Champions of the old and new economies alike will hope he succeeds.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here