Sino-Scots partnership to harness wave power

Under a new partnership, the OUC, based in the eastern coastal city of Qingdao, has agreed a contract with EMEC which will see staff from the Orkney based facility assist the university to develop a wave test centre in Shandong. A Memorandum of Understanding has also been signed to foster closer working relationships between EMEC, the University and Qingdao Municipal Science and Technology Commission.

Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond announced the new partnership while visiting the Shandong Province, and also visited Himin Solar Valley to discuss the potential for research and investment in renewable and low carbon technologies. Mr Salmond also renewed a Memorandum of Understanding between Scotland and Shandong Province, signed by the First Minister and Governor Jiang.

Mr Salmond said, “Nature has provided powerful resources that, combined with great human endeavour and ingenuity, can be harnessed to create plentiful clean renewable energy. This is an ambition shared between China and Scotland, two nations with a strong industrial heritage and reputation for innovation. Both nations also have extensive coastlines and considerable marine resources. Scotland has around a quarter of Europe’s tidal resource and around a tenth of the continent’s wave power potential. Building on our natural endowment of oil and gas reserves, we already have an internationally renowned offshore engineering base that is diversifying into marine and, of course, wind power.”

Scottish Development International chief executive Anne MacColl added: “Renewable energy, particularly wind and wave power, is an area where Scotland’s significant capabilities make us highly competitive on the global stage. Some of our biggest economic opportunities lie in the growth of this sector, and today’s announcement is a real testament to that. The skills and expertise coming out of EMEC are truly world leading and Scottish Development International will continue to explore the real long term opportunities partnerships such as these will bring both to Scotland and China.”

Established in 2003, EMEC is the world’s only accredited wave and tidal test centre for marine renewable energy, suitable for testing 14 devices simultaneously in some of the harshest sea conditions while exporting electricity to the grid. All but one of these full scale berths have been leased. Among the devices at EMEC is ScottishPower Renewables’ P2 Pelamis Wave Power device that China’s Vice Premier Li Keqiang saw during its construction at the Edinburgh based developer’s Leith facility when he visited Scotland last year.

The European Marine Energy Centre was established with around £30 million of funding from the Scottish Government, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the Carbon Trust, the UK Government, Scottish Enterprise, the European Union and Orkney Islands Council.