EMEC identifies scale test sites
Scotland’s test centre for commercial-scale wave- and tidal-energy devices is expanding to attract businesses who wish to test small prototypes earlier in the product-development cycle.
The Orkney-based European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) has now identified ’nursery sites’ in the islands in which energy devices can be tested - a halfway house between testing such devices in tanks and full ocean conditions.
’These scale test sites will enable developers to take quicker and cost-effective routes to market, through initial access to more benign conditions,’ said EMEC managing director Neil Kermode.
’They will be supported by moorings, data collection and other services complementary to our full-scale test areas, along with ’load dump’ capabilities - as their power output will not go to the grid. This means that the developers can concentrate on their devices and technologies, free of many other technical issues,’ he added.
Four new berths - two each for wave and tidal - will be available next year. Two general areas for the berth sites have been earmarked for further exploration - wave berths within the north-east corner of Scapa Flow and tidal berths in the Shapinsay Sound.
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