TIDAL energy specialist Nova Innovation has been awarded acreage off Shetland on which it expects to develop a significant source of renewable energy.

The company has secured agreement from Crown Estate Scotland for a plan to develop a tidal array which it reckons would be capable of meeting over a third of household electricity demand in Shetland.

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The progress of the plan will be followed with interest in Scotland amid hopes that tidal energy could make a big contribution to the drive to reduce carbon emissions.

Nova has been generating power from another tidal array off Shetland since 2016. It says this was the world’s first offshore tidal array.

The company has developed a form of tidal energy turbine which it is confident could become a global success. It won £6.4m backing from the Scottish National Investment Bank in September.

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Nova’s chief executive Simon Forrest said it was working with local partners to deliver another world-leading project.

Michael Matheson, Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy, said: “This agreement between Nova Innovation and Crown Estate Scotland marks another important milestone in commercialising tidal energy in Scotland.”