The largest tidal energy project in Europe can get under way after permission was granted for the first stage in the Pentland Firth.
A demonstration project of up to six turbines will be built in the water between Orkney and the Scottish mainland.
Energy Minister Fergus Ewing said: "Today we have granted consent to MeyGen Limited to develop the largest tidal turbine array in Europe and the first commercial project off these shores.
"This is a major step forward for Scotland's marine renewable energy industry. When fully operational, the 86 megawatt array could generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of 42,000 homes - around 40% of homes in the Highlands. This exciting development in the waters around Orkney is just the first phase for a site that could eventually yield up to 398MW."
Speaking before the Scottish Renewables Marine Conference, Mr Ewing said developers Aquamarine Power and Pelamis Wave Power are to share a slice of a £13 million wave "first array" support programme, part of the Scottish Government's Marine Renewables Commercialisation Fund.
Mr Ewing said: "We must tackle climate change. We need to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels through better and more efficient uses of energy. Marine energy - a home-grown technology with huge potential - is part of the solution."
The Carbon Trust has estimated wave and tidal resources could provide 20% of the UK's electricity.
Lang Banks, director of environmental group WWF Scotland, said: "This is a significant announcement and a major boost for the marine renewable industry in Scotland."
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 hereComments are closed on this article