Carbon Trust will help run a new multi-million pound fund to help develop Scotland’s first commercial wave and tidal power arrays. Addressing the AllEnergy conference in Aberdeen, First Minister Alex Salmond launched Scotland’s Marine Renewables Commercialisation Fund (MRCF).
The First Minister said: “Europe’s greatest wind, wave and tidal resources are heavily concentrated in the waters around these islands and Scotland is at the forefront of developing offshore and low carbon energy generation technologies. The new fund brings together the marine renewables expertise of the Carbon Trust, Scottish Government and our enterprise agencies. It will help move the wave and tidal sector from prototype devices to commercially-viable arrays, producing increasing amounts of electricity solely from the power of the seas and deliver a lasting legacy for future generations.”
Dr Stephen Wyatt , Head of Technology Acceleration , the Carbon Trust , added: “Scotland has a world leading resource and is a hot bed of innovation and deployment making marine energy an exciting green growth sector. We are delighted to be involved in developing and delivering the new Marine Renewables Commercialisation Fund over the next three years. This new fund will be critical to tackle the next set of challenges and innovate to drive down costs of both wave and tidal power.
“Our recent analysis of the sector has shown that with continued innovation the best marine energy sites could be cost competitive with nuclear and onshore wind by 2025 and in the future marine energy could provide a fifth of the UK’s electricity needs.”
The MRCF will be available to boost the roll-out of wave and/or tidal power arrays, to support the marine energy sector to make the next step towards commercial maturity, and help planned developments in the Pentland Firth & Orkney Waters, and other marine locations around Scotland. It is open for bids, for two months from today, with the announcement of successful projects to due to be announced towards the end of this year.
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Offshore WIND staff, May 24, 2012; Image: Carbon Trust